Dealing With Christmas Pressure

   
        While at a Christmas gathering of relatives one year, my sister-in-law mentioned that their phone system was acting up, and the technician who was repairing it said, "You've got a lot of chaos on the line."  To which, Joannie replied, "Our whole house is chaotic right now!"

        This does not need to happen to us, at Christmas or any other time of the year, not when we can turn to what Christ Jesus said:  "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:  not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  The number of men and women in the world who would give almost anything they own to feel some of this peace in their lives, must be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.  Calmness in the midst of life's disturbances, when we aren't experiencing it, can seem more important than food or drink.

        If you and I want to experience the deep peace the Master promised us and so obviously felt himself, a logical way to begin would be to cultivate the same awareness Jesus had that God is all-powerful and constantly in charge of our lives.

       God knows you and me not as stressed-out material beings but as His spiritual reflection, in possession right now of His dominion and peace--the same peace that Jesus manifested and said was ours.  Christ is always at hand to change turmoil into harmony.

        Abiding tranquility carries a price tag.  Through consistent, heartfelt communing with God, we feel the peace of our unity with Him as His beloved child.  God--the all-directing, supremely governing, intelligence of man and the universe--is indeed in charge of everything that concerns us.