Should we or should we not say, "Merry Xmas"?

Some time in the past, I heard a pastor mentioned in a Bible study that it is wrong to spell it Xmas. His reason being was it's removing Christ from the word, which is, well, not right. True enough. Why would you remove "Christ" from Christmas and replace it with X when He is the main reason why there is such an occasion in the first place? Over the years since, I hold this argument to be true. Because, plain and simple, it makes so much sense.

Arguments about this topic come out every year as the season is felt. Recently, there have been factual explanations as to the validity of the use of "X" to allow the use of "xmas" without conservative Christians reacting negatively -- "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), translated as "Christ"." -- It's some sort of a symbol or something based on the Christian origin of the word. X has become a symbol for Christ, and studies show that it's not just a modern day usage. It dates way back in the ancient times.

I am not gonna go further into details of the historical facts of when, who, or what started it. Although, the main explanation for abbreviating Christ's name is for the purpose of transcripts. But, here's one question I have in mind, "because we found a factual (and not to mention, Christian origin) explanation to use X to say xmas means it's ok to?"

Here's the thing...Not everyone knows Greek. Not everyone is educated. And we don't need to inform everyone about the facts related to its ancient usage if we can simply just write Christ as is. Why do we need to make use of symbols in the first place? Are we some sort of fraternity or cult? Don't we want people to know who we are serving that we have to use symbols, which are known only by scholars?

What many people know about X is it's a symbol of any of the following: unknown, cross, wrong. At least, these are what people know. In fact, children, when they see X, they automatically see it as WRONG (mistake). As in in test papers. "In cartoons, Xs are drawn instead of eyes to indicate the death of a character. X is commonly used as a generic mark. There's even a term GenX." These are what many people know about the letter and not the X Greek origin fact we are now being presented with to validate xmas. And because of this, majority, especially the underprivileged will read Xmas as EX-mas and have no opinion about it whatsoever. Then, they just accept it as that.

I mean, it's not that we can all educate people to know certain things. And informing everyone of the fact may or may not help, at all. We say, "it's just how it's spelt. The real essence comes when we have it in heart." But, if spelling "Christ" in full to make sure that we are not talking of "unknown" someone (as the reality tells us that too many people are aware not of the Greek fact but of what we know what x is and how it's actually used in everyday situations)...we are talking of our Savior. We wanna make sure that Christmas is pronounced as Christ-mas than ex-mas. At least for the sakes of the majority who do not know history.

Am not being a fanatic of some sort by saying this. Am only thinking of those who are simple-minded. We, Christians, want to promote Christ. And if we are to do it, then, why use a term that is not well understood by many if we can simply spell it out, anyway? Besides, we don't use Greek in our everyday language. Why to say Merry Christmas we have to use X (as if we're Greeks) and replace "Christ" with X (and ends up pronounced as such) only because we have the knowledge of what we're talking about without considering, well...the kids, the homeless, the uneducated ones who can't even read or write, or even those who can but the best they know is that x is nothing but EX. "Who cares?" So they say, "yun na yun"!

X being Chi is Greek. We are English speaking nation. Is't really hard to spell the name of our Lord and Savior the way EVERYONE can read and understand it as it is? ...and not like a fill in the missing word because whatever we say, X remains to mean unknown (our everyday language)...used as substitute ... just-fill-in-with-any-word-you-wish something. That's why we declare the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To let people know who HE is and what HE has done for mankind. If we are to replace His name with X, which has several equals, what's the use that Christ is named that?

Personally, I'd rather use "Christ". I won't mind typing/writing long just to make sure I am referring to only HIM and not just anyone. I mean, come on! This is Who we call our Lord and Savior and we can't even spell HIS name in full! Or rather, we don't want the hassle of typing 6 letters so we type 1. Convenient! Worse, we cause other people to just follow whatever practice started long time ago. We're not even certain when it started and if it's even truly acknowledged or accepted. Yes, there may be accounts to its usage by early Christians but how far do we know?

I don't know with you, but if people are to give me a birthday bash and they're gonna print a banner that says, "Happy Birthday JCN", am not sure if I am going to really appreciate it. Like how many JCNs do we have in the family? How many JCNs do we have in my clan? I want people to say my full name. How wonderful it is if I see my full name there on the banner! That assures me that it's me they're really greeting and not some unknown whoever. I don't like JCN. How much more if someone refers to me as X?!

Personally, I see this issue the same as emphasizing Santa Claus rather than baby Jesus and substituting "Happy Holidays" for "Merry Christmas".

Now going back to the main topic, "should we or should we not" is NOT the question. The question is "why?"

Doing Good Makes You Fake

Prolly it's just me. Still overwhelmed and still can't believe. How can you easily mend when you sincerely cared for someone, offered your real friendship and love to this person, given your time and effort ... only to find out that some nasty words said about you can influence this person's view of you and unsparingly judge you? I smell a lil odor of ungratefulness here. Or unreal friendship, perhaps? The friendship was only based on good weather condition. When storm comes, everything is wrecked.

Am not sure if it's a problem on the giver's end or the recipient's end. If it's the giver's, what lesson learned is this:

be always careful NOT to show any negative attitude whatsoever, or else, EVERY good you have done will be forgotten -- crumpled, thrown into the rubbish and expunged from history.

This is what happens when you can't consistently be nice. So, don't be(?).

It's such a tough job to be a nice person, don't you think? Why would anyone want to be nice at all if one single wrong done can be a license for people to say you've only been showing a facade? Well, one way to heal is be numb to judgments. "Don't let others' opinion of you define you." I agree. Just so happens that rumors ruin reputation. That's why we are reminded to be careful with our words... be careful what you say ABOUT or TO someone because "our words can either be a brick to build or a bulldozer to destroy".

My concern here is, "can't anyone remember the good a person has done anymore?" After all the good things done to you, you rather see the bad? Worse, you have to drag other people to hate this person, too! This reminds me of a professor who showed the class a smooth white sheet and asked what do we notice. Everyone started saying their observations being, "there's a small dot in the middle!" The professor continued saying, a bigger tendency of people is to find what's wrong in someone or something, in stead of just seeing the whole. Which is true. Why are we such critics, in the first place? When we know in ourselves that there are lotsa imperfections in us.

By saying this, I don't mean that we must never tell another what's wrong with him. We should. It is our social duty to try to correct another being, especially a loved one, for their sakes. But, this should be done with love and sincere concern. Not to disparage or to humiliate or to abase. Not to tell them they are no good and we are far better. Correction should be done out of real concern for the welfare of the person.

This reminds me of another situation. Your friend has halitosis, would you tell him or not? Or would you just let another person do that for you?

One way to gauge whether a friend is real or not is if (s)he can openly correct you when you've done something wrong and not tell someone else about it. Isn't it called gossiping when you rather tell someone else something about someone? I mean, issues within two persons need not be broadcast-ed to the rest of the world outside them. As much as possible, keep it between the two of you. Talk about it when your friend offended you. chances are, (s)he might just be facing a battle that's why (s)he behaved the way (s)he did. When friendship is real, offenses can easily be forgiven and forgotten. Mature friendship understands that we all are going to inevitably hurt each other because of one simple explanation -- we all differ from each other. We think, act, speak, feel...differently. That makes each of us unique.

Trusting is hard in cases like this. Why? Picture this... you've offended someone, but (s)he rather not tell you and act friendly, still. Showing bright smile and all. But, in your absence, there (s)he blurts out what (s)he finds wrong in you to people who are totally not involved! And these people will start throwing judgment at you because the nasty words came from a reliable source, anyway -- your close friend!

How can you trust this friend if (s)he can smile at you as if nothing's wrong when inside (s)he harbors ill feelings? When is the smile real? When is it not? How would you know if you're being offensive to him/her if (s)he chooses to pretend (s)he's not affected by anything you say or do? Can't we just be completely REAL to each other? Is confrontation really not an option, at least, to try to restore a threatened relationship? *sigh*

What's more sad is, they're sooo into themselves that they don't/can't acknowledge they'd done something which hurt you. I'd quote a pastor. He said, "it's easy to forgive until you have something to forgive." True enough. There are, actually, offenses that are easy to forgive and to forget. People who you don't have to sweat forgiving. Personally, I find it hard to forgive those who you give your full trust to and then betray you. Hmmmm, sounds like it's all on me. My mistake. Wrong choice of who to trust. Ok, I'd shut up now and end up taking all the blame.