Good morning…
I was driving around in December’s hustle, rushing to here before dashing to there.
“Of course, there’s a train,” I texted the photo above to the person forced to wait as I was running late. A line of red taillights. Stopped by a standstill. Traffic mounting along with my anxiety, my frustration, my anger at myself. If I had been in my peaceful mind, I may have enjoyed the slow down, the sitting still, the beauty of the setting blue sky. But I had lost my peaceful mind.
Peace was mine earlier in the day, when I actually stopped my car on purpose. In the middle of a cul-de-sac. In the middle of the day. I put my car in park, left the engine on and went to take a picture. The UPS man drove up beside me to ask, “What are you doing? Is there something wrong?”
“No,” I said. “Look. Did you see what I just saw?”
Walking from the pavement into a random front yard, I pointed out the sight that caught my eye as I inadvertently drove by.
Do you see what I saw? A big blow-up Santa laid flattened on a bush. The happy air which filled him full was mysteriously gone. Peaceful joy escaped somehow. Evaporating into thin air, his insides were emptied out, exhausted.
I thought back on the sagging Santa as I waited for the train. How had the happy air filling me full be mysteriously gone? My peaceful joy from earlier in the day had somehow escaped, evaporated. My insides were empty and exhausted as light drained into night.
Our human emotions and our level of energy come and go, ebb and flow, puff up big and drain really low. In contrast to the slumping Santa and our fickle feelings, Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrew 13:8, AMP).
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life (Philippians 4:6-7, MSG).
As we shape our worries into prayers, the breath of God settles us down. Wonderful things happen when our worries drain out into the loving care of our eternal God. The power of the living Christ rises up and expands out, filling full our innermost being.
…Sue…
