Hello, my friends. It seems forever since we met here. I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start.
It’s still Christmas in my house. The tree’s twinkling and presents are piled waiting for a late celebration with our children and grandbabies.
You probably stashed away your holiday décor and greeted this year, eager and excited. Or maybe, like me, 2015 ended with some daunting difficulties and you’re not quite ready to tackle them.
Perhaps you’re wide-awake in the wee morning hours, with a mind that won’t shut off. You’re thinking of everything and trying to figure it all out. The only thing you’ve accomplished is getting twisted into a panic and rolled into a sleepless stress-ball.
That’s where I was last week. Exhausted and determined to end my mental rant, I stopped and talked to God. I told him I didn’t want to stay in my sadness and I needed him to help me. My head cleared as he reminded me that I don’t function from a place of fear, grief, and despair.
My life is rooted in peace, hope, and joy.
Those are the gifts that Christmas gave us when God became man. His presence and his promises were born among us, to live in us. Years ago, I received those gifts. But sometimes, heartaches distract me.
I’m reminded that it’s still Christmas. Not just in my home, but in my heart.
Jesus empowers us to live above our feelings and our circumstances. He is here and he hasn’t changed. We can trust him to give us courage for the unknown. He’s already carried us through difficult situations and we know he’ll do it again. That is the hope for us who believe.
Life’s lumps don’t have to keep us stuck.
Let’s surrender to what 2016 requires: courage, hard work, and perhaps rearranging our plans.
Let’s be stubborn enough to fight. Let’s live, learn, and accept the life we’re given. All its grief and messiness will make us stronger if we allow God’s presence and promises to change us.
He’s here. He’s not silent. May we hear the gentle whisper, “It’s still Christmas.”
“Now, at the dawn, our eyes are fixed on you in gladness. We ask only that your faithfulness permeate every troubled place we are able to name, that your mercy move against the hurts to make new, that your steadfastness hold firmly what is too fragile on its own. And we begin the day in joy, in hope, and in deep gladness. Amen.”
–Walter Brueggemann; Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth
Photo by Connie Zink http://www.facebook.com/connie.zink1
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