as dumb as sheep

I don't know about anyone else, but I know I can go from hip and intelligent to decidedly dumb in less than one point two seconds. It's like a switch that I can't control, a button that gets bumped into--and bam! Stupidity.

Fortunately, for the most part I contain the toxic spill within my own brain, and offer minimal evidence to the world in general.

Unless you happen to be the person I'm speaking to when the idiot light goes on. Sometimes I clam up, and make eight-year-old level comments. No sentences over five words long. (Yes, that was yesterday.)
Or worse--I babble. Things just drop from my mouth. Silly things. Or worse--mean things. Wit and sarcasm gone horribly awry.

I almost always notice when the light goes on, and try to act normal, casual--but the button has been pushed, and the system needs a reset. It may take three minutes, it may take an hour. There's no telling how dumb I'll be or for how long.

And somehow, I don't think I'm the only one who has this problem. We all have...ahem..."issues." Some have more obvious and/or violent ones than others, but we all have them. We're all royally screwed up. It's a switch we can't control. It doesn't matter how self-aware we are, or how good our intentions are. That idiot light will always pop up.

So how can anyone live in this world and not think they need a savior? Surely it's not too hard to see that we all need to be rescued from our own junk. Especially this time of year, when the regretable, illogical paradox of what we have turned Christmas into stares us right in the eye. It's the season of loving, caring, sharing...stuffing our faces, and trampling people as we rush to seize the deal. Doesn't that just make your skin crawl?

Mine does. Because I know it wouldn't take much for me to be just as stupid and selfish, much as my pride would like to argue otherwise.

We focus on the cheap, temporary gifts, and miss out on the greatest and best and most wondrous gift ever. The eternal Gift.
Freedom from my own stupidity. Forever. Someone to set me on my feet whenever I tip over. Forever.

Happy birthday, Jesus.