Shhhh...

It's quiet. So quiet.

For kicks, I drove through the busiest shopping district in our area a while ago, and it's empty. The small world around me was all but shut down. I managed to avoid the stresses of life leading up to Christmas this year, and as I look around while driving aimlessly this morning, I realize how glad I am for that. It's a gift I have given myself this year, and it has afforded me a peace I likely would have missed.

It's a recurring miracle, Christmas, and while buried under all the clamor of life this time of year, it's come once again whether at our bidding or completely unsolicited. The world was quiet for a few hours after the candles and songs, hugs and well wishes, and completion of those last few chores we imposed on ourselves yesterday. We've received the miracle once again, and as the world wakes up again this morning, it's a different place than it was yesterday whether we see that or not.

I honestly hope that nobody reads this today. I hope you've all chosen to relax, disconnect, and receive personally the gift that God has chosen to give us. Receive it. Internalize it. Drink it in and rejoice in its purity. Hug your children, your siblings, your parents. Sip your coffee and reflect. Stay at the table and enjoy the company of whomever God has placed in your life today. And at some point, give thanks. Give thanks for this miracle of life, salvation, and forgiveness that you've been offered once again.

Merry Christmas, friends. The sun is shining here today, big and bright. Let it wash over you and cleanse your soul. Receive the gift.

Stand

As the end of the year approaches, it's easy to look back and feel defeated by the things we failed to accomplish in the last 12 months.  Each and every day many of us find ourselves looking back even farther, sometimes to childhood, and reliving past defeats.  While it's never a bad thing to reflect on our past as a tool for moving forward, tapping a root in only the pain or mistakes from the past can be utterly destructive.  When faced with new opportunities in life we have choices - jump headlong into them with no regard for what we've learned to guide us, joyfully accept them and incorporate them into our current reality, or walk away from them for fear of repeating some failure from our past.  Each time we abandon an opportunity to grow and gain happiness, we leave a little piece of ourselves laying on the ground to be trampled by life, and over time that can become the only reality we know... a shallow, fearful, thin reality that reaches no farther than we can see.  I've tried to live my adult life without looking back and feeling regret.  I've tried to admit to myself, my God, and those around me the mistakes that I've made in an attempt to erase those lingering feelings of guilt.  I believe that without personal accountability for our actions and how we behave toward those around us, we will never be able to properly move beyond our past mistakes and use them only as tools for growth instead of landmarks for our lives.  There's a tremendous amount of freedom in releasing yourself from the things you've done wrong in your life.  And better yet, the God I serve is waiting to take those things from us and help us start to move past them.  I find it easy to "give it to God", but what I was reminded of recently is that we have to resist the urge to keep taking it back from Him.  Once we free ourselves from the past, we can't keep revisiting it as part of our current reality.

I saw once on a church billboard this message:  Shame looks down, guilt looks around, faith looks up... which way are you looking?

I'm adopting a new mantra, and it's based on a poem I recently found:

Start where you stand

Start where you stand and never mind the past,
The past won't help you in beginning new,
If you have left it all behind at last
Why, that's enough, you're done with it, you're through;
This is another chapter in the book,
This is another race that you have planned,
Don't give the vanished days a backward look,
Start where you stand.

The world won't care about your old defeats
If you can start anew and win success,
The future is your time, and time is fleet
And there is much of work and strain and stress;
Forget the buried woes and dead despairs,
Here is a brand new trial right at hand,
The future is for him who does and dares,
Start where you stand.

Old failures will not halt, old triumphs aid,
To-day's the thing, to-morrow soon will be;
Get in the fight and face it unafraid,
And leave the past to ancient history;
What has been, has been; yesterday is dead
And by it you are neither blessed nor banned,
Take courage, man, be brave and drive ahead,
Start where you stand.

~ By Berton Braley (1882-1966) www.BertonBraley.com