THE PRINCE OF PEACE

For to us a child is born,
To us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Christmas can be the best time of the year, but it can also be the most difficult.   Sorrow and loss seems to get magnified.  Expectations are raised high and reality rarely lives up to them.  It is important, midst all of the frustrations and turmoil and selfishness of this world, to remember that our biggest need was met by the child born in poverty in Bethlehem long ago.  Christ came with one purpose…..to die.  There was to be no peace between God and man unless ours sins were dealt with.  Since we were helpless to make ourselves good, as anyone who has ever really tried knows,  there was not much hope….until Bethlehem and Golgotha.  Only a sinless man who did not need to die could be an effective sacrifice………what love

How grateful I am for the peace that only Jesus can give. It is not dependent on circumstances.  It is not dependent on problems being solved.  It is dependent on my remaining dependent on Him.   Circumstances and problems will rob me of peace when they become my focus.  The turmoil and chaos of the world will destroy if it is not viewed through the filter of Christ.   Only when I am abiding in Him am I able to see a bigger picture.  He is the ultimate answer to every dilemma.   As long as I am alive on this earth, there will be sorrow and loss….but He truly has overcome the world.  The key is, as He tells us, to “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen” (2 Cor 4:18)  As I begin to understand better who God is, He grows larger and the “passing away” things of this world grow smaller and smaller and smaller…..and less able to harm.

Merry Christmas to all!

It is a known fact that gratitude leads to health benefits.  Better sleep.  Less depression.  It even leads to a better immune system and less inflammation.  As the book of Proverbs says, “A joyful heart is good medicine.”  Inspite of the benefits of gratitude, however, it is not something well practiced.  We are not very good at saying thank you, or even thinking it.  Less than half of men and only slightly more than half of women regularly express any gratefulness on a regular basis.  According to Janice Kaplan, the  author of “The Gratitude Diaries”, the least grateful are those between the ages of 18-24.  But though hopefully one grows more grateful as one gets older, overall we are an ungrateful society, no matter our age.

A few years ago, in an effort to battle some depression, I read a book that encouraged me to begin a list of items for which I was thankful.  I have forgotten the name of the book, but as I remember I was to start with a basic list of a few items and add to it each day.  After the first few days when I listed the most obvious choices, I had to really think about what I could add.  It really was therapeutically amazing!!  I came up with so many things.  I was so blessed.  What I remember the most, was that many of the things I was thankful for were things I had been taking for granted.  The colors in a sunset or a warm breeze.  The beauty of a flower.  The song of a bird.  Once I started looking for things, I found them.  I had just been missing them even though they had been there all along.

I have never forgotten the lesson that book taught me.  Even today, I find it is fun to sit and see what I can come up with.  Take for instance the ability to smell or taste food.  Often we just breeze through a meal and in a few hours have forgotten what we have eaten.  But in slowing down and savoring you notice so much more.  Can you sort out the different spices in a good chili or appreciate the  texture of a really smooth custard?  Think of the genius that designed us.  How can we distinguish such differences.?  It is amazing to think that we can differentiate between tens of thousands of different smells, sometimes detecting a compound, in wine for instance, at a single part per trillion!  Of course we should be thankful for such ability.  Instead of being grateful, however, I find that I am much more likely to complain over the smell of sweaty socks than I am to appreciate the lavender in the wash that makes them smell fresh.

The weather is turning cold!   Winter can be a bit of a downer to some of us.  My prescription for a pick me up on a cold afternoon is ….TEA! There are a lot of health benefits available from cozying up to a cup of tea.  Of course, in the United States, coffee is still the beverage of choice when a little caffeine is needed.  Worldwide, however, tea is consumed at a rate 3 times that of coffee.  And even in the United States we are increasing our consumption of tea.  Most of us seem to prefer black tea (87%) but about 12.5% drink green tea.

Some of the benefits from tea, besides the sheer comfort of a hot drink, come from the caffeine it contains.  Research currently says that consuming up to 400 mg of caffeine daily is safe for most adults.  It can increase mental alertness, of course, but it also has been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimers disease.  It is important to remember, though, that too much of a good thing can cause some unwanted side effects such as headache, tremor, insomnia and anxiety.

And be careful what you put in your tea!  Adding a lot of sugar or cream may negate the  positive effects.  Definitely avoid nondairy creamers, as they often contain trans fat which you need to avoid at all costs!

If you have not gotten your flu shot yet, it’s time. There are a long list of excuses that I have heard from patients over the years, but those who forgo the shot and get the flu are ALWAYS sorry. I am such a believer in the wisdom of taking the flu shot that one year, when my kids were little and did not want it, I told them they had to get it in order to have dinner! I knew that the momentary pain would possibly save them from worse pain down the road.

So here are the stats. In the United States, about 36,000 people still die from influenza yearly. Worldwide that number goes up a lot, as influenza kills from 250,000 to 500,000 people each year. Many more are hospitalized with serious illness but survive.

And it is not just for yourself that you should get immunized. You do not want to be the one to give it to someone else. This is especially true if you are around elderly or immune deficient people. In addition, if enough of us get immunized, there may end up being a kind of “herd immunity” developed in the community.

The injectable flu vaccine contains nothing live and therefore it is impossible to get the flu from the vaccine. (it is not recommended to get the nasal vaccine which is a live vaccine) It is safe to get the injectable vaccine even if you are pregnant. There just isn’t much downside. And since it is impossible to predict the severity of a flu season, why not take precaution? If there were other killers that you knew would kill over 700 people in your state this year, you would do what you could to avoid them.

I think America fears the wrong things.  Today’s news is full of rhetoric about Russian influence and assaults against democracy.  Through words and free speech, no less!  It is not Russian influence through Facebook ads and posts that will destroy us.  If we fall, it will be because our citizens no longer are able to think for themselves.  It will be because we are too easily swayed.  It will be because truth and character have eroded to the point that we can no longer discern truth from error or right from wrong.  It will be because the foundation upon which we once stood is shaken and soft.

Perhaps that is true.  We overlook all sorts of terrible character flaws in our leaders.     It is very naive to believe that how someone conducts themselves in private does not affect how or where they will lead us.  How can we honestly believe that someone who lies to their own family would honestly serve the public?  And why do we believe them when they promise what we know they cannot and will not deliver?

America needs to go back to its roots.  Our leaders need to be held to a higher standard!  Our journalists need to pursue truth over profit!  We need to examine our own lives and aim to live nobly.  We need to vote based on character.  We need to vote also with our feet and our wallets.  We need to try to understand each other.  We need to care for each other even when we don’t understand.

We need to  strengthen the foundation of American and then we will not need to be afraid.  We will not be so easily undermined.  No country with a solid foundation and belief in love, hope, and truth need fear influence from any false rhetoric….from Russia or anywhere else!

I think every person alive has a battle.  Some are so much worse than others, but everyone has one. (or more)  The question then becomes, “How is the battle best fought and won?”  Years ago, I read that in many cases, fighting a battle is not so much about fighting the darkness, as it is about turning on the light.”  That was a great help to me.  But turning on the light is not that easy.  How does one turn on the light?

I remember that old phrase, garbage in, garbage out.  You can apply that all sorts of ways, but it can apply to the mind and heart. And since that is where our battles are mostly fought, it matters what our focus is on.   This world is so broken and there is so much wrong, but there are still vestiges of good.  It is important to look for them and focus on them.  And it can become fun…kind of like a treasure hunt.  Even the worst of people was created in the image of God and was not meant to be what they have become…and if you look hard enough, you will find a little treasure amidst the filth.  We need to apply that technique of looking for the good.  And  when we do, it will help our own battle.

It helps, when I am really struggling, to focus on who God says He is.  Not on what I think He is.  I make him small and a small God cannot help me.  But He is not small.  When I focus on who He really is, there is hope and light.  His Word says that He is love.  He is light.  He is truth.  He is the one who has given EVERY good gift.  Good food.  Good music.  Great art.  Beautiful sunrises.  Colorful birds and bugs.  My children.  A good night’s sleep.  The ability to hop on one foot (which I am losing)  Whatever is good, I need to thank Him for it.  And that act of thankfulness, in itself, seems to help.  And by being thankful, we add to the good in the world.

Matthew 6:22 says “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”  So I am going to keep trying to adjust my focus and put more of my attention on what is uplifting.  The beautiful things of this world…the mountains….a trout filled river….sunset at the beach…..they are meant to point us to God.  The and vastness of the universe and the infinite complexity of the smallest cell….they point us to a creator.  How in the world we have come to believe so many lies and ignore what is right before our faces is quite amazing.  But in focusing on truth there is healing and health and victory for whatever battle we face.

When kids are very young, the world is so new and exciting.  Kids  are so curious.  They want to explore and see and understand everything.  And when they first start school, it is so much fun.  Learning is what they want to do.   They practically shout “Teach me!”

So what happens?  By the time we are adults, we seem to have internalized so many “No” and “Don’t do that” statements that we no longer even wonder about things.  We become afraid.  We lose the innocent, wide-eyed wonder with which we are born.  We become accustomed to day to day monotony…same foods, same routine, same old, same old.  Some of this is perhaps necessary, but what happens to  the imagination and creativity that God gives us when he forms us?  Why are we so inquisitive and excited about life as kids, and so boring and even cynical as adults??

As I ponder this, I think that maybe it is the adults in the world that do this to the kids.   As the ones “in charge” we do make a lot of rules.  Some are necessary because of safety, of course.  But many are just for our convenience.  Many are because of our fears, accumulated along the way.  We all have baggage and we pass it on to the next generation…and the next…and the next.

There, of course, are always a few adults who think “outside the box.”  Often they are ridiculed.  But some change the world! Surely, there should be more of these people.  But they are not usually rule followers.

Don’t get me wrong….I am not against all rules.  There are just so many of them!  When I think of the beginning of human society ….all the way back to the original creation….. Adam and Eve were initially saddled with only one rule.  We were told to explore and rule over the entire planet and we were given only one rule.

Then when Christ came, He again took us back to simplicity with just 2 rules.  Love God first and then your neighbor.  It is because we don’t want to follow those 2 rules, that we need to make so many others.  And with many rules, our lives become filled with so many “NO” and “Don’t do that” barriers….and we become adults.  I think we should study the children around us.  Then we should try to rediscover the child in us.  We can learn from kids and we need to try to avoid turning them into us.

May we all become as little children, at least in our ability to wonder and enjoy and trust.  Children shout “Life”.  They love adventure!  I don’t think I like adults so much!!

The eclipse is today!  A total eclipse of the sun.  I am excited…..how could I not be?  There has been so much written about this lately.  I have read in newspapers about how it is like a spiritual experience!  Ha!  The heavens declare the glory of God.  Just because man has observed enough to be able to explain what and when will happen, he thinks he understands it.  How arrogant is man.  I like what a good friend of mine said yesterday.  She told me that she and her husband would “sit on the top of our Somerset (their boat) and watch the Lord do his thing.  How fun is that?”  I agree.  How fun is that?

I’ve always hated running.  I was always short of breath and ready to quit from the start.  A few months ago, however, I decided to try it again…..and I discovered that if I kept going when I felt like quitting, I ended up liking it!  Amazing.

Usually, I run on a golf course and it is beautiful.  So this morning I went for a run.  It may sound silly but, as I ran,  I pretended that I was on a slow (very slow) moving train.  I wanted to take in the scenery.

There was a lone rabbit in a large grassy area, barely visible and sitting very still except for its twitching nose.   A single bird sat all on alone on a wire.  Still lake water sparkled.  A few yellow leaves were falling from trees….fall is coming.   There were men at work, tending to the greens.  There were hills.  There were valleys.  Beauty everywhere but only really appreciated by someone going slow enough to notice.  The simple but gorgeous stuff of life on this planet.

As I ran, I thought about life and that it should be more like a slow moving train.  I am tired of rushing.  I am tired of missing the small enjoyments of life because my focus is on some more distant goal.  It is impossible to focus completely on something far off and something close at the same time.  I remember the old adage of “stop and smell the roses.”  There is nothing wrong with setting goals and focusing on them periodically to make sure you’re walking in the right direction.  But there is also nothing wrong with looking around you, as you travel through life, and noticing what is right before your eyes.   In fact, if you don’t do this, you may arrive at your goal empty handed only to find out that the original goal was not as great as you thought.

So I am trying to slow down.  Instead of waiting for adventure in the future, I am looking for it along the way.  I love a slow moving train.  And just so I don’t miss anything, I want a window seat!

My last blog was about my craving for adventure.  I do crave it!  I’ve actually been praying for awhile that God would give me new adventures!  I like structure and predictability to a point, but I hate ruts!

I was reading 1 Kings 17.  It is about Elijah during a drought and God told him to hide by a brook and ravens would feed him.  So here he is being fed miraculously by ravens and the brook dries up!  What is that?  God is sending food by bird express but lets a water source dry up?  What was He thinking?  It turns out it was God’s timing for Elijah to move on.  But I love the way God is unpredictable and yet always faithful.   No putting God in a box!

So back to my new adventure. I call it an answer to prayer, but my husband calls it “being a slum landlord.”  (It is true our small downtown is not beautiful…yet)  Anyway,  I don’t have a “for rent” sign up yet but people have been calling out of the blue to inquire about renting.   It’s exciting!  New and different!  Not necessarily miraculous…or is it?  I don’t know.  God works in the miraculous and in the ordinary.

Either way, it’s fun….I’m eagerly waiting for what is next!