The Prince of Peace

In less than a week we will celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Interestingly, this is the time of year when things are crazy busy and anxiety runs at an all-time high for many of us. How do we reconcile that in our mind, and in our heart? I think, as I ask this rhetorical question, I can hear Cindy Lou Who singing, “Where are you Christmas? Why can’t I find you?” It is nearly impossible to find the Prince of Peace, the originator of this beautiful holiday, when our lists are so long, our families are so … difficult, expectations are so high and energy is so low!

Can you just sit back and relax a few minutes while I share a few thoughts on how to find the Prince of Peace. Light a candle, grab a cup of hot chocolate and a Christmas cookie (well, not at my house since I haven’t done the least bit of Christmas baking) and just breath in the peace of Christmas.

Peace is strength. Like the calm after the storm, God’s peace gently wafts over us and would go completely unnoticed, had we not just experienced the typhoon of life in the previous days, weeks or maybe even months. Just like the Hebrew children wandering in the wilderness for 40 years when it was right there within reach after a few days journey, we are tossed be one storm after another. The Prince of Peace is right there. He never left. He is sustaining you as you struggle to stand in the forceful winds of trying times. And He will bring you peace, but not without first bringing you the strength to withstand the storm.

Peace is tranquility. We find it in the cease fire moments of life. When we stop trying to be right and invest, instead, in doing right. Battles will overtake us if we look for peace as if were a trophy case where we display our supreme ability to win. Rather than seeking to be the loudest voice with the strongest argument, perhaps we find the tranquility our heart desires when we lay down our armaments and extend the olive branch.

Peace is courage.  When we are afraid, we are not at peace. Our focus is on our anxiety and not on the Peace that can calm our fears. It’s true. We live in a dark, scary, troubles world and have every reason to feel afraid. But perfect love casts out fear, according to scripture. If we focus our attention on loving others, our fears begin to decrease. If we allow others to love us, the way they love (even if it doesn’t really look like love to us), and receive it as a special gift, we tend to lose our grip on the fear of not being loved… or not being lovable. Let God’s love fill you to overflowing and you will find that fear no longer rules your heart and courage has taken up residence. That is a worthy place for peace to find a home.

Peace is joy. Like the innkeeper in the Christmas story proclaiming, “No Room,” to Joseph, we seem to have filled our lives to the fullest capacity, leaving no room for joy. Activities, even of the sweetest variety, tend to run us ragged until we have lost the joy that we know in our hearts is the gift God is trying to give us. Keeping the Joy Giver close at all times, helps us to untangle the calendar that has us completely overwhelmed and begin to realize that joy is a decision we make with every task on our To Do list. Joy is the gift that comes directly from the Prince of Peace. We just have to take the time to breathe and smile and unwrap it!

Peace is Grace. In the carol, Silent Night, there is a verse that describes the Christ child as the “dawn of redeeming grace.” Christmas represents the beginning of reconciliation between God and His beloved people. It is the beautiful story of grace… unmerited favor… undeserved forgiveness… beautiful redemption. Jesus, the baby laid in the manger, showers us with the grace that He fully intends us to “re-gift.”  If you really are searching for the peace of heaven, extend grace to those who are on your last nerve and making life difficult. They have a story. You may never understand it, but they are loved by the One who left heaven to come and bring peace to them and to you.

May your Christmas be filled with…

Joy

Grace

Courage

Strength

Tranquility and

The presence of the

Prince Of Peace

Merry Christmas!

Everlasting Father

The

people

walking

in darkness

have seen a great

light
on those living

 in the land of deep darkness

a bright light has dawned.
You have increased their

 joy

For to us a child is born

For unto us a son is given

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God

Everlasting

Father

Prince of Peace

We have all been there. Clouds rolling in. Darkness settling. Confusion. Despair. Loneliness. Questions we can’t seem to find answers for.

What we need is for someone to turn on the light, show us the right direction, bring us clarity, chase away the fear, and walk beside us on our journey so we are not facing this alone. When the darkness settles in, our joy escapes and we don’t even know which direction to go to find it again.

Perhaps this is where you find yourself this Christmas season. When you got married you were expecting to find fulfillment, unconditional love, and happily ever after. But trials came and darkness started to seep in a bit at a time until one day you woke up and discovered you are totally on the  wrong trajectory to get you to that happily ever after you were sure was waiting for you. Now you are plodding in the joyless darkness, hating your life and trying desperately to find the love that seems to be eluding you. The spark has died and you are in the darkest place you could be, perhaps even considering walking away from this seemingly hopeless marriage.

If you are reading this and you can't identify with that hopelessness, you probably know someone who can, so, keep reading. There is HOPE and, just as the Hope of the world was found in the unlikeliest place that first Christmas morning, so is the hope for restoring the love to a marriage. You see, when we feel hopeless, we tend to in the palace, just like the Wisemen did. When you are looking for a baby King, that just makes sense. But they didn’t find Him there. And they didn’t give up. Even though the star led them to an animal trough.

When trouble hits at home, most of us look for relief … probably not at a palace, but, maybe at the mall, in a bottle of wine, in a carton of ice cream, in friendships, and eventually, perhaps on dating websites. That is truly how the world we live in seeks to find solace, but when we think like the world thinks, we end up lost… just like the world. Save yourself time and a whole lot of trouble… DON’T GO THERE!

You have a WONDERFUL COUNSELOR who is calling you to look to Him for guidance; who is asking you to be open and honest about how you got to this dark place; who has the answers you need to find your way back to healing and restoration.

You have a MIGHTY GOD who is sending reminders to you multiple times a day that He is big enough to blow away that cloud that seems to follow you everywhere. With every sunrise and sunset, He reminds you that He knows how to keep the entire universe in order and can certainly do the same for you, if you allow Him to do so.

You have an EVERLASTING FATHER whose love for you is beyond anything you can ever comprehend. He wants you to understand that love. He demonstrated it when He willingly left heaven to be born into poverty; to be doubted and misunderstood for the entire time He was here; to realize that a torturous death would come to Him from the hands of those He came to love. And in case that wasn’t enough for you to see His love, He told the story of a Father and his love for his son who had turned away from his family, squandered his inheritance, lived a riotous life and had done everything imaginable to break the relationship between himself and his family. Do you know the reaction of that father when he saw his son returning home? He cast aside his dignity, his pride, his social standing and, breaking tradition and the expectations of society, he literally bolted out to greet him before anyone could get to him and tell him he was unworthy to return.

Do you know what the son brought to the father in order to be restored? Nothing but shame and sorrow and humility. He asked nothing but to be a servant in his father’s house. But the father’s love wouldn’t hear of it. He restored him to his place in the family… because of LOVE.

The Father is ready to heal your heart and replace your brokenness with love. Perhaps you are doubtful because you have asked Him a million times to no avail...but, have you come to Him humbly… not with your list of what you need Him to do in your spouse’s heart… but in yours. Humility is the beginning of healing. It started in a manger and it continues as we come to Him, our Everlasting Father, knowing we are in darkness and need His light. 

Understand what I am saying here. Humility is not thinking that you are a loser… it is not being downtrodden and thinking less of yourself, at all. Humility is simply thinking of yourself less. Often, in our pain, we are thinking thoughts like… I should be treated better… I should have married someone else… I  need more… I  deserve better… I want to be loved… and all those I statements indicate we are thinking of ourselves a whole lot, rather than thinking about our partner and their needs and their feelings and the reasons they may be behaving as they are.

I am so glad that, in the story Jesus told, the father wasn’t ashamed of the son and the things he had done. I am so glad that he didn’t shun him. I am so thankful that he wasn’t focused on the failures.  Jesus wanted us to see that, just like the father in the story, His focus is on healing and restoring us to a right relationship with Him… and beyond that, to healing our relationships with each other.

When we look inside, and ask Him to blow away the clouds of doubt and failure and selfishness and pride and envy and all the dark thoughts that the evil one has planted, we can find that light again. That spark that ignited into true love once upon a time, seemingly a lifetime ago, is still there.  Ask the Breath of Heaven to blow new life into the smoldering embers and experience true, beautiful, restorative healing in your home.

That is the best Christmas gift you can give to your children.

Seeing the Light

We had three of our grandkids with us Sunday morning and as we drove to church, the sun rise was noted by all of them. “It looks like a rainbow sunrise. I can see all the colors of the rainbow in it!” they exclaimed. Coming off of a week of vacation I was immersed in concerns of what I may have forgotten to do before I left, so I hadn’t even noticed, but the excitement in the backseat caught my attention and I looked to the horizon and saw what the delight was all about. I couldn’t help but think about how I was missing the beauty of His light as I sat in the darkness. But, truly the darkness was being overcome by the light… by the promise of God as prophesied by Isaiah, six centuries before Jesus came as the Light of the world.  “For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine” (Isaiah 9:2).

The Light is Jesus. God in the flesh, who left heaven to come show us the way back to the One who made us to reflect His light. He made Himself known and made it abundantly clear that He is the Light that would dispel the darkness, yet we continue to stumble in the dark. Why is that? Why do we not see and reflect the light of God? Perhaps we simply aren’t looking in the right direction and we need to hear some joyful children reminding us of the Mighty God prophesied by Isaiah.

It is a busy time of year in homes all across America. Baking. Decorating. Concerts. Visits. Shopping. Wrapping. Parties. Life is just different in December than any other month… yet much the same. There is still laundry and dishes, menus and meal prep, homework and headaches, work and swim meets and basketball games. So, we are doubly busy and the joy is rapidly sucked right out of us as we charge, full speed ahead. Is there a remedy for December overload?

Isaiah went on to say of Jesus that, “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God…” (Isaiah 9:6). Maybe we don’t see Him entirely that way. If He is truly a wonderful counselor, should we not be transparent and completely honest with him about where we are and what is going on in our lives? If he is a wonderful counselor, would we not take the time to listen to what he has to say and heed his advice? Maybe, instead, we simply see him as a sounding board to receive our complaints and don’t care to listen to his wise counsel because, all along we have been making the decisions that have our lives in a flurry of craziness.

What does your home look like this holiday season? What is the focus of your conversations? Will your children learn of the Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God that came from heaven to show us the way to live in His light? Or will they simply see you stressed and overwhelmed with all the extra activities of the season and the darkness that is closing in around you? I am glad that I don't have kids under my roof watching me this year... or last. I am as guilty as anyone of taking on so many good and wonderful things that I end up crazy busy and missing the joy I should be feeling over the best gift of all time.

Dear, loving, hard working, well meaning, excellent parents,
Know that I am saying a prayer for you tonight and will do so many times this month. I am praying that you will have the strength and wisdom to say NO a few times so that you can say YES to the best things about Christmas. I pray that you will take those precious children God has entrusted to you beyond the sparkle and excitement of the bearded man in red, and even beyond the babe in the manger. Help them to see the Mighty God that we can never comprehend… especially when our focus is so narrow that we forget He is the Master, the Creator, the One who put all things in order and made each of us to be a part of that miraculous plan. Magnify Him so that they catch a glimpse of the Wonderful Counselor  who loves them enough to listen to them; to bring them into His presence and guide them with His light and His love. I pray that you will let them know He created them to walk in His light so they can find fulfillment in His plan for their lives. Bring the LIGHT of Jesus into your home this Christmas, and let go of anything that keeps you from doing so. And know that I am praying for you to find peace and joy as the days bring us closer and closer to Christmas.