Silence. No traffic in the streets. Stores and restaurants are closed. Businesses shut down so employees can spend time with those they love, whether family or friends.
Homes are open. Families are reminiscing. Friends are laughing. Joy is present. Sadness and sorrow are distant, dying embers of faint, color-faded memories. We stop and look around the cluttered corners of our minds to look for and count our blessings and find reasons to be thankful.
Then, suddenly, it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving. People are rushing. Vehicles are bumper to bumper. Busyness returns with its friends — stress and anxiety.
We stampede into the season of Silent Night and Joy to the World, hoping that our limited effort to make this the perfect Christmas season is met with success and triumph.
But the lack of perfection often causes us to stress and worry and implode into anything but Peace on Earth.
Then, try as we might, the plastic smile plastered across tired faces powered by ibuprofen and caffeinated beverages doesn’t feel like the Christmases from childhood a lifetime ago.
It feels like trying too hard so others don’t ask how we are or if we need anything.
Because we’re not supposed to need anything, and we’re supposed to have everything under control. And this season is supposed to feel idyllic.
Sometimes, we take on too much and get in over our heads. In our effort to make it feel a certain way, we forget that peace and joy aren’t created by us. They are gifts from above.
So, taking time to focus on the reason we have any sliver of peace or any ray of sunshine in the world is what brings us back to a place of contentment and goodwill toward men.
I, for one, want to focus on Him.
to anyone celebrating the Christmas season,
– Caleb
caneymountainblog.com 