Peace at Christmas

This second week in Advent we light the peace candle.

This impossible week smack in the middle of the loud to-do lists, the party planning, the loved ones hurting and the wounds that cut deeper because after all, just as Christmas magnifies wonder and beauty, the season also magnifies anguish and pain.

So it seems an impossible task. Light the peace candle and live in peace today. Exactly how do we do that?

How can I focus on peace when so much of my mental energy is laser focused on my list and those burdens? Those heavy, overwhelming burdens.

Where can I find this elusive peace when every half decorated room in the house haunts me with melancholy and every Christmas-music-playing store I shop, reminds me that I’m in over my head.

I can’t fix the situations that beg to be fixed. I can’t take away the pain of someone I love.

I can’t even do Christmas or observe Advent in “right” way.

Ann Voskamp’s thoughts on peace push their way to the front of my mind;

“Peace is not a place – Peace is a person.”

For a moment, I sit very still with those words, breathing deeper and slower as truth seeps through me.

As long as my mental energy is laser focused on worry and control, anxiety will always win.

As long as I’m searching for peace in an actual place, I won’t find it and I’ll always feel like a failure.

Only when I pause to make room in my crowded mind for the Prince of Peace can I let go of the burdens. Let go of my drive for perfection. Let go of my lists. And entrust my loved ones to the One who is able to keep them.

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
 And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
   Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6)

I pray peace over you and yours this Christmas season my friends~ ox