unfathomable peace

If you're like me, you're feeling that the lights of Christmas, the sparkle of the season, the joy of these days you felt a week ago have faded into dark strains of overwhelm, deep tones of sadness, muffled questions and no real answers.  

What in the world is to be done with such a thing.  What do you say?  What do you think, hearing it over and over?  What do you even feel, scrolling through their faces?  What's our response?  What are we going to DO?

The reality emerged this week we already knew but manage at times to overlook is that--like thousands of years ago when Isaiah was written--we live in a dark land.  We walk in great darkness.  In gloom.

It's a gloom that's been been hard for me these days to shake.

O. Chambers says this:  "Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God, there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go."

Isn't that the truth?  Perversity...a deliberate desire to behave in a way that is unacceptable, in spite of consequences.  As long as we are trying to serve more ends than His, there will be perversity.  Perplexity.

What then shall we do?  Chambers says that our attitudes must be of complete reliance upon God.

Isn't that the truth as well?  Where else shall I rely?  Where else can I stand?  On what else can we be sure?  On whom else can we trust?  Who else can give me promises?  Where else can I find hope?

When we're living in obedience to God, "His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is NOT natural, but the peace of JESUS."

The seal of Jesus on our lives is peace.

Despite.  Nonetheless.  Still.

I have been thinking, all these days, And how terrible, for this is Christmas.

Yet tonight, I think again.  How relevant, for this is Christmas.  

It is Christmas.  The season when darkness is approached.  The time when the dark is broken.  Broken.  As we are.

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish, Isaiah 9 says about Christ's coming.  About Christmas.  About NOW.  

There will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish...but later on He shall make it glorious.

The people who walk in darkness (think of them, think of the many, tonight) will see a great light;  Those who live in a dark land, (think of us, think of the many) The light will shine upon them.  You will increase their gladness; they will be glad in Your presence.  You shall break the yoke of their burden.

For unto us a child will be born, a son will be given.
The government will rest on HIM.
His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Tell me, family, what else do we need right now?  

What do we need besides WONDERFUL?  

Besides COUNSELOR? Besides Mighty?  Besides Eternal?  Besides the Prince of PEACE?

As for me and my house, there is nothing else.  Nothing else.  

Tonight, family, it is Christmas.  And the land is as dark as it ever was.  

But the Child, long awaited, He has come.  He is and has been and will be all that is needed.  All.  There is a great light to be seen.  A great light to shine.

Where is it tonight?  Where is it this Christmas?

It is ME.  Ah, Lord, help me.  It is ME.

And the seal, the mark of that Child, the stamp of Jesus this season on my heart, on my forehead, from my mouth, in my eyes, shining out of my heart, is to be PEACE.  

Despite my grandfather's death, and this evening, his brother's unexpected death as well.  Despite all I see in Haiti, in the world.  Despite Friday and the horror...Heartbreak.  

I still carry Jesus, the Light of the World.  Jesus, the Prince of Peace.  

There is ONE thing to be done.  ONE response.  ONE thing that must NOT be lost this season, as far is it goes by me.  

Light must be given.  Peace must overflow.  It must not be hidden.  It must not be softly peeking from my life.  It must not be abiding in my heart but absent from my speech and actions.  It must not be filtered indirectly.  It must not be given politically correct.  On tiptoe.  With care.

Light and Peace, He is OURS to give--in this land of darkness--in a crazy, bold, direct, abandoned way.  Like God did, sending His own self as a baby into the cold darkness to LOVE.  To Cry.  To Counsel.  To Live, and to Die.  CRAZY.

That it might be...
That it still can be...
That we can be Merry Christmas.

1. Comfort, comfort, ye My people,

Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;

Comfort those who sit in darkness,

Mourning 'neath their sorrows' load.

Speak ye to Jerusalem

Of the peace that waits for them;

Tell her that her sins I cover

And her warfare now is over.

2. Yea, her sins our God will pardon,

Blotting out each dark misdeed;

All that well deserved His anger

He no more will see or heed.

She hath suffered many a day,

Now her griefs have passed away;

God will change her pining sadness

Into ever-springing gladness.

3. Hark, the Herald's voice is crying

In the desert far and near,

Bidding all men to repentance

Since the Kingdom now is here.

Oh, that warning cry obey!

Now prepare for God a way;

Let the valleys rise to meet Him

And the hills bow down to greet Him.

4. Make ye straight what long was crooked,

Make the rougher places plain;

Let your hearts be true and humble,

As befits His holy reign.

For the glory of the Lord

Now o'er earth is shed abroad,

And all flesh shall see the token

That His Word is never broken.