Tag Archive - peace

3 Changes to Take the Dread out of Happy Holidays

December 20, 2011 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 3 Comments

In the midst of harried fall and winter celebrations, most people harbor some amount of dread. More than once I was called Scrooge by my kids simply because I didn’t feel like adding all the extra hustle to my bustle. It’s a hassle to put out all that Christmas stuff only to take it down again. Minutes don’t grow on mistletoe. Many, like me, stretch time as it is without adding holiday stress. Somehow, reflection and thankfulness, holiness if you will, gets lost in our expected and celebrated traditions.

Shattered Christmas

Shattered Christmas decoration.

The pressure mounts, as we are forced to be pleasant in situations of strained relationships. A falling out with either a business associate or some family members may make celebrating with them difficult. We all have an odd Uncle Dan hanging out at family gatherings where we just want to get out. Instead we put on a good face and make a first-class show because it’s the expected dreadful experience of the season.

Others simply have nowhere to go to celebrate with anybody. They are alone. Feeling abandoned in an odd sort of way. They dread the Michelangelo’s or Banquet frozen dinners and lifeless Christmas movie viewing. Alone. Again.

A Change of View

As I thought about these dreaded situations, I remembered Jesus’ banquet story. He said a man went to a lot of trouble to get ready for a party and no one really wanted to come. Therefore, he invited the day workers off the corner, the lonely, the drunken castaways and anyone else who just happened by to come to the banquet.

 

Charlie Brown change of view

 

I can see several similarities about this story to my approach to Christmas. First, I see there is much preparation involved in gathering people together. But the point isn’t the preparation, rather, it’s that we set aside time to gather together and reflect on what is holy. I’ve determined that, even with my schedule, I’ll make the food, set the table and get ready to focus on God this season.

Second, I see lots of people who are much like me, way too busy. We often don’t schedule any room for meaningful relationships and have trouble stopping to focus on God’s big picture, to sit at his feet. He’s in control and we need to drop everything and spend time with him at his table. When I stop my busyness, I realize what is really important and what isn’t.

Third, and this may be the most significant; we can be like the man in the story. We can go to great lengths to create an atmosphere for others to celebrate Jesus and then invite them to come to our table. These may be outcasts, people from broken homes, workers who can’t get home, singles with no family or those who feel left out, anyone who will come for a meal and celebrate. We can intentionally set a place for a guest at our celebration in order to give greater meaning to why we celebrate.

Three questions to consider while approaching Christmas.

  1. Am I considering that the point of all the cooking, shopping and decorating is to gather with other people and focus on what is holy? It’s not just about the food, gifts and fun décor.
  2. Am I too busy to develop meaningful relationships, relax and have fun with others? Is work or my schedule keeping me form experiencing the love and peace of God and others?
  3. Have I considered that there are people all around me that have no reason, no relations or no friends to celebrate Christmas with? Would I be willing to invite those that are overlooked to celebrate with me?

The answer to these questions provide for a more meaningful Christmas.

What about you? How are you taking the “dread” out of the “Merry Christmas?”

This post is part of the Spiritual Journey’s Gentle Nudges Series. If you enjoyed it you may also like the Living and Working on Mission Blog Series, the Insights into Ministry & Leadership Series or the other Blog Series.

Was this post helpful? Consider subscribing!

Check out the options for subscribing here! That way you won’t miss a post. And if you really think it’s tops, Twitter it and like the FaceBook page!

Thankful Thoughts Make Happy Hearts

November 22, 2010 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 2 Comments

On a 45-minute bus ride full of conference attendees, people stared. I filled the time with big belly-laughter and a Texas-style, heel-kicking good time. The passengers pretended not to stare, but I saw their glances. Then a woman across the bus turned and peered Ziggy-like above the chair. From her seat she stretched her neck then over the riders and noise pronounced, “You ladies are sure having a good time. What’s so funny?”

laughing girlTruth was, nothing. Not one thing was that funny. We were just having a grand time. Renae, my fast-forming BFF, and I snickered, giggled and laughed until my face hurt and my sides ached. It was like being a teenager again. Our fun seemed to make many the bus riders take interest.

I wondered what caused the attraction. The only thing I can think of was my overwhelming sense of gratefulness. I was thankful for the opportunity to attend the conference and spend time with Renae. My husband encouraged me to attend and my family tightened where my absence created slack. I felt blessed and filled with gratitude. It was those thankful thoughts that made me happy.

Giving thanks pours a huge measure of contentedness into our lives. It’s not content in the circumstances, but content above them. Let’s face it, a 45-minute over-stuffed bus ride with twice as many smelly feet as people on board isn’t the most welcome circumstance. But I was so thankful that even if it was a trailer ride pulled by a tractor in the freezing weather, I’d have been happy. Cold…but happy.

If only thankful thoughts dominated my everyday thinking, I’d be the most obnoxiously happy person. But food preparations, dirty laundry and tight schedules don’t exactly generate feelings of gratefulness. The daily grind traps me. To keep from being stressed, I’ve got to be thankful for the dailyness: food to prepare, clothes to wear, and chores to bear.

Bread

If placing my attitude on thankfulness doesn’t change my circumstances, it sure changes me. My gratitude turns into happiness, because thankful thoughts makes a happy heart. I want a joy-filled-bus-ride experience everyday, not just on Thanksgiving Day.
Let’s laugh and sing our thanksgiving. Others may stare or want to join.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (Psalm 100:4).

Thought: There are lots of Christmas songs. Please share some Thanksgiving songs that we might sing our thanks?

Subscribe to the blog feed feed-icon-28x28.
(*Image courtesy of sxc.hu)

The Amazing Effect of Red Chairs

May 31, 2010 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 1 Comment

Some days an extra something special is needed to get a smile. Where contentedness is elusive and stress is the norm, a deep sigh of rest is refreshing. That’s the kind of smile I needed when I looked out my back door window.

On the porch were a bunch of chairs. Red chairs. They had been old, rusty church castaways when I rescued and painted them. Don’t they look fun and inviting?

Red Chairs
On this Memorial Day, I’m going to go out into the Africa hot sun, grill some meat and take a deep restful sigh. Yes, sir, I’m going to smile and be thankful for blessings both grand and simple.

Consider grabbing an old rusty chair and either dream of how to recreate it or just sit in it while remembering blessings. May you get to relax and smile this Memorial Day.

Subscribe to the blog feed feed-icon-28x28.

On the Porch

April 14, 2010 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 1 Comment

On the porch I sat.

It was a beautiful spring day, but I had a wazoo of weeds, a long unwanted list, and a dry, empty longing. Whether it was the paralyzing pace, or the brilliant sun’s warmth, I had to simply sit.

waterglass

I didn’t want to do anything. I’d lost my excitement and anxiety reigned in its place. I wanted to shut down and turn off the to-do file.

Way too much happening. My oldest child was about to get married, the next in line graduating and headed off to school. At home, the remaining last child was uneasy, teasing about running off. Anything seemed more appealing than being left with the “crazy old parents.” Add wedding showers, graduation parties and the search for the right dress to the less-than-simple schedule and . . .

I quit.

I was done.

Done for, anyway. The clock was ticking. I’d fought Father Time like he was a bad weed. I’m ashamed to say that when my kids were in grade school, I even stopped giving them birthday parties.

I prepared the babies to be grown-ups, but when the exchange took place, I noticed I missed the class preparing me. Surely after I’d invested my life into these kids, they couldn’t leave.

But try as we may, life changes faster than clock hands during spring forward.

Kids change. They age. And our denial is forced to a halt.

So on that bright spring day, I sat on the porch.

And I discovered, again, my desperate need. The need to fertilize my faith, plant inner growth and gulp the Living Water. The life giving, thirst quenching water of trust in God, good for all seasons.

I remembered life’s summers may come and go, but Jesus remains the same.

Today. Tomorrow. Yesterday.

The same.

I trust him.

You can too. Won’t you join me for some Living Water refreshment on the porch?

Subscribe to the blog feed feed-icon-28x28.

Search for Peace in a World of Disturbance

October 28, 2009 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 0 Comments

Peace.      Still.      Rest.

Peace in a World of Disturbance
Peace in a world of disturbance

The Burden.
Ever push to make things happen? When I do, I become anxious, worried, and stressed. All actions feel like my responsibility. Like it’s my fault when it doesn’t go well. Or when it does, the credit is mine. During these times, everything seems to key off of me, what I do, or don’t do, if I’m good enough, or not. I don’t like the stress of that kind of responsibility.

The Freedom.
When I place myself in the presence of sovereignty, I have peace. Overriding the swirl of troubles, struggles, and circumstances, a peace prevails. My actions become obedience to the sovereign God instead of an ambition to control. I realize the results don’t hinge upon my behavior or ability. God’s responsible for the results. I’m responsible for obeying. By sitting down in submission to him, I find a peaceful freedom.

The Counsel.
“Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act” (Ps 37:7). I should work physically while sitting still in God spiritually. But I forget that God’s in charge, and get busy, working, feeling responsible for the outcome. When things don’t go right, the responsibility turns into temptations to take control, get frustrated, and become angry. Psalms 37:8 states, “Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm.” “Be still,” or “Stop being angry!”

The Choice.
I must choose. “Be still,” or push-through-with-all-I’ve-got. The choice leading to peace is simple, but the “Be still” follow through isn’t easy. The option keeps coming back and needs a fresh resolve. Sometimes I make the right choice, and others…

Anyhow. Do any of you, like me, search for peace in a world of disturbance?

*picture by MJ Photography

Where is your brother?

September 24, 2009 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 0 Comments

Yesterday’s entry in Streams in the Desert had a stirring poem by Archbishop William Alexander. The poem moved me as it spoke to my heart’s passion. Listen to this…

“If I have eaten my morsel alone,”
The patriarch spoke with scorn;
What would he think of the Church were he shown
Heathendom—huge, forlorn,
Godless, Christless, with soul unfed,
While the Church’s ailment is fullness of bread,
Eating her morsel alone?

“Freely you have received, so give,”
He says, who has given us all.
How will the soul in us longer live
Deaf to their starving call,
For whom the blood of the Lord was shed,
And His body broken to give them bread,
If we eat our morsel alone!

Bread Image

Oh Church, I confess to being a glutton, but I can no longer fully enjoy our feasts, the meetings of shared faith. My heart longs to take the abundance of life to those who hunger, those who cry out, those who have no hope.

To those who wait, “I don’t know how to get to you, but I’m coming. Hold on a little longer while I find my way and learn. I want to bring you a bite of hope, a bit of love and acceptance. I’m a coming. Don’t give up.”

To God, “Help me bring the answer to their cries. Show me how to do this. What is your way? Fill me with your amazing love and let it pour over them. Here am I.”

“Where is your brother Abel?” (Genesis 4:9)

Less than Rosy and Cheery

August 11, 2009 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 2 Comments

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Field of Food

Things aren’t always rosy and cheery, BUT things can always be good in God. It’s a perspective. A matter of where you place your hope, of what to surrender and to whom. If everything fails, God will not.

The Peace Prince

December 30, 2007 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 0 Comments

I’ve got tell you about my God. This is what happens when sickness keeps me from my regular speaking about the greatness of my God. I type it and get it out this way. It is too great to keep inside and must come out some way or another.

My God, He is the Prince of Peace. He came to bring peace, not as the world gives. His peace is unexplainably different. It surpasses comprehension and makes little sense. It is outside of our realm or other worldly. Yet, He came to bring His peace to us in our world.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:14 records the Christmas angels heralding peace and good will. The angels spoke of the coming of Jesus Christ into our world and of the good news and good will for the people of our world.

But we’ve been around the block enough times to know world peace isn’t here, nor is it just around the corner. Strife and struggles permeate our lives to the point of breaking us. Problems with families, neighbors, and war. Issues with health, wealth, and loved one’s death. Peace in this turmoil? How can it be? The world offers a peace that is absent of dissention, opposition and affliction. If one can catch a moment of the world’s peace, it is a rare and fleeting chance. Life is tough and full of rocky, hard places.

So how can God’s peace have been given but not realized? God has given us peace, but we must accept it, seek it and find it personally for ourselves. In order to realize this other-world kind of peace in the midst of life’s hardships, we must believe the good news of the glad tidings with an invincible faith. A faith that seeks Jesus with everything we have, giving ourselves over to the passion of finding more of Him in every moment of living breath. When we apprehend our Lord as truly ours, we attain the invincible faith that maintains the divine kind of peace no matter what our circumstances may be. This is the kind of faith the saints of old had when horrible tortures of lions, burnings, and atrocities took their lives as God’s peace kept their faith. The same faith and peace Cassie Bernall showed when facing a gunman in Colorado.

The world’s peace is a vapor, but God’s peace has staying power. It is ours for the seeking, ours for the having, ours for the sharing. That is the good news. God came to bring us peace, and we can own it. No one can take it away from us. Peace in my heart. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

My God rules!

Uncelebrating Celebration

December 25, 2007 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 0 Comments

Hello beautiful people. I wish you the greatest holydays.

I didn’t feel like celebrating the regular way this year. Things were different. Celebrating with decorations, cooking and eating didn’t appeal to me. Nor could I get into the buying, unwrapping and giving gifts. It was all different this year. It wasn’t because of sickness, although we were under the weather part of the time. It wasn’t because I didn’t have my family with me, I did. I felt different. I even thought it might be a lack of Christmas spirit, that the Ghost of Christmas past might visit me. Scrooge. No, I wasn’t anti-Christmas. Rather I felt less hustle and bustle and filled with more—I don’t know—thought maybe. Yeah, thoughts of the past, the present, and the future, like in Dickens’s Christmas Carol.

I celebrated by thinking of the joy and peace Jesus came to bring us in the midst of our pain and unrest. I celebrated Jesus being in the lives of family and friends, and cherished the thought of His presence in each one of you. I reminisced in my relations with each of you with gladness. And I had peace. All the trappings of this world can vanish like vapor and leave us with nothing before the throne of God, but by Jesus’ peace and joy, united and together we will be. We’ll have each other. I prayed for each one of you to experience the peace and joy that Christ offers all throughout the upcoming year. In Christ, we are victorious! May we see Him as He is.

Blessings upon you and your family,
Robin