Breath Prayer and Words for the Day: Let peace begin with me.
Peace. We tend to think of peace as being the absence of war and certainly there is truth to that. But on a more personal basis, peace is the absence of anxiety. So that as we watch the second Advent candle being lit this Sunday, we should ask ourselves that age old question,"How goes it with your soul?"
The paradox for so many of us during this Advent time is that secular holiday preparations actually introduce a great deal of stress into our lives as we run the gauntlet of cards, tree, decorations, lights, parties, and presents. Mall traffic, self-imposed deadlines, and the sense of heightened expectations being honed upon us like Rudolph red lasers can certainly get the blood pressure going and create anxiety. Stress. Clutter.
While it may seem as if we are the passive recipients of a holiday script, we need not be. Indeed, for persons striving to follow the Christ whose re-arrival we anticipate, the season begins with faith. We believe that God redeems the world and God's Spirit is poured over the mundane and the profane (or in the immortal words of Johnny Cash: "the mud, and the blood, and the beer."
So don't give in to anxiety. Celebrate and prepare for Advent on your terms. Focus on people and sense of community and see if all the other details don't fall into place. Like the song says,"Let there be peace on earth.......and let it begin with me!"
