December 10, 2016. Madison, GA. Sick, part 2

When I blogged three days ago, I was celebrating our new television antenna, but also bemoaning the content of the programming we are now receiving, the news, the advertising and the programs themselves. In spite of my critical analysis, we are thankful for the additional channels and the chance to be more aware of the world around us. I was, however, not reporting the whole story, when I mentioned the need for prayer and the fact that ultimately, God is in control of everything we encounter.
The whole story is: we are living in community with friends, family, acquaintances, billions of people we do not know and will never know, but every one of them is "sick" in one way or another. There is so much pain, illness, physical discomfort, greed, injury, disease, emotional trauma, pride, crime, intentional and unintended consequences of words, opinions, actions and thoughts, that we can easily become discouraged or tune the bad out. As Christians we are supposed to do the right thing, live according to a moral code, be generous and compassionate, but we see, hear and experience so much that is "broken", we may forget that we can't fix it all, but we have faith in The One who can fix it, and will fix it, in His timing.
Christmas means a lot of different things to the billions of us on this planet. But to us who are Christ-followers it should be more than gifts, parties, contatas, or carol singing, too much food and a day off. No matter whether we even consider it a legitimate "Christian holiday" or not, the reality is that we are surrounded by a lot of hurting people. We ourselves may be hurting and the prayer lists are long, the needs great and the calls for God to act are infinite. Every day should be Christmas, a day we need "more of Christ", a day to pray for healing, unity, belief in something greater than ourself and a day to be thankful for life, for the gift of Jesus and the promise of better things to come.
Thank You, Lord, for the peace which passes all understanding, peace the world cannot give to us, for our light and momentary troubles which are achieving for us an eternal glory we can rely on. Yes, Lord, Yes. By faith, I do believe You have it all under control.

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