Happy New Year January 2, 2018
Prayer Therapy
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Happy New Year

I was thinking what to write about New Year. Every year we celebrate New Year festivities saying bye to old year and welcoming the New Year. The dates change on the calendar. People try to bind themselves under some new resolutions. New plans are made to be accomplished in the New Year. How many succeed in their new plans is a big question. For many people the feelings of the end of a year is very depressing. A lot of deaths take place during the last days of the passing year and the beginning of the New Year.

As soon as Christmas is over there are preparations for the New Year. Two great events of the year take place with a gap of exactly six days. The greeting cards carry the prayers and wishes of Christmas and New Year together.  Why do we celebrate Christmas and New Year together? I mean, why are the two most important events of the year come one after the other? The answer is that the Christmas story is incomplete if it does not end in entering the New Year. Both events are very strongly bonded together. Let’s review the Christmas story.

The main theme of the Christmas story is the search for Messiah. The wealthy and wise kings, the poor and humble shepherds, Mary and Joseph, together with people from all over the world were looking for their Messiah. They used different methods and skills in order to reach their destination, their objective, their goal. They were much focused, humble and determined people loaded with feelings of gratitude. They had a positive attitude with no complaints and hence they achieved their objective. Once they found the Messiah, there was joy and jubilation. The job was completed, the goal was achieved, the problems or miseries ended. Once we achieve our objective, the difficulties, pains, problems, worries and illness finish. The success brings joy and jubilation. The year of search for Messiah has ended. The days of problems and difficulties are over. We have entered into a new year, new life of joy, health and prosperity. We cannot enter this kind of New Year without searching and finding our Messiah. We may enter the New Year in the calendar hung on the wall of our house, but we can never enter the real New Year of our life until and unless we find our Messiah. We just change the number of the date on the physical calendar. But have we been able to change the date on the calendar of our heart and our daily life? We are still in the darkness. We are still sick and burdened by worries and problems. In order to come out of our worldly stress we need to first look for our Messiah, our goal and objective of our daily life.

Aslam (Not his real name) is a 65-year-old man. He has been suffering from diabetes and heart ailments for the past several years. His kidneys are not functioning. He is on dialysis. Aslam constantly complains about the attitude of his wife and children. He says that they are not cooperative and supportive. Aslam has loads of stories to convince one that his life is a tale full of woes and miseries. He gave me an SOS call seeking my help to resolve his problems. I advised him to change his own attitude as a first step. He needs to stop complaining about his wife and children. He must use positive affirmations such as repeating to himself that “My wife and children are very helpful and supportive”. He refuses to repeat such affirmations saying that this will be a lie. ”I shall not say or repeat it”, says Aslam. He refuses to visualize that his wife and children are displaying attitude of cooperation, support and love. Aslam does not accept the moral lessons of the Christmas story. He refuses to look for his Messiah. With his current negative attitude, Aslam will never be able to find his Messiah and therefore will never be able to enter into New Year. He will always remain in the old year of pain, sickness and complains. He needs to come out of negative thoughts and complaints regarding the people in his house. I wish that Aslam looks for and finds his Messiah so that he is able to rejoice welcoming the new and shining bright year in his life.

Therefore, we need to look for our Messiah and the moment we find him we go into gratitude and celebrations of a joyful New Year. This experience leads us to peace and prosperity which is beyond description. That’s what is called the real New Year.

Please note that the concept of Messiah is not limited to a particular religious faith. It is a general and broad concept of ‘Saviour’. This is the Messiah the great poet Ghalib referred to when he said:  ابن مریم ہوا کرے کویؑ ۔ میرے دکھ کی دوا کرے کویؑ  “I wish I could find a son of Mary, meaning a Messiah, who would cure my pain and sufferings”.

Happy New Year!

Mumtaz Shah