Peace

 “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You,”  —Isaiah 26:3

‘Tis the season to be jolly…or at least so goes the Christmas tune. After we have barely paused to give thanks, we plunge headlong into making lists of gifts we need. Maybe we don’t really need them, like two front teeth, but things we want for Christmas.

As we enter this season of wonder, joy, and faith, why do so many people feel frustrated and defeated? In part, it may be due to roadblocks that our culture has placed in the way to true peace and contentment. One of those barriers is worldliness. For me, worldliness is not so much about riches and affluence as it is about the cares and pressures of this life.

I have never shopped on Black Friday. I usually hide in family rituals like shooting-in the deer rifles or playing (usually watching now days) a game of football. My wife tells me that Black Friday actually begins on Thursday this year, and there is a new shopping day called Black Monday or Cyber Monday, the biggest internet shopping day of the year. I can barely tolerate shopping on Thanksgiving Day, but moving an online shopping day to the first day of buck season is going too far.

I am amazed by the juxtaposition of Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday for they represent opposing concepts. Thanksgiving represents gratitude, peace and contentment, while Black Friday summons us to get all we can. A day to give thanks is replaced by the urge to aggressively shop and spend. Contentment is replaced by desire and peace by worldliness.

In the Parable of the Sower, worldliness might be seen as the seed sown among the thorns. Persons hear the word of the Kingdom, “but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things seem to describe an American preparation for Christmas. Sounds very much like Black Friday.

Don’t get me wrong. The world economy needs a successful Black Friday. I hope sales go through the roof. Many of us need some good economic news, but more than that, we need the Good News. We need the perfect peace that only a relationship with Jesus Christ, the God of Christmas past, present, and future, can bring.

Neither a successful shopping day nor a booming economy can bring peace. Only Jesus Christ can satisfy the hungry soul. Isaiah 26:3 offers us words of hope, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.” We cannot find peace in gadgets or gifts, but only in the Savior who made Christmas possible. Jesus taught that if we seek first the kingdom of God, we will find all the other things we need. Psalm 37 teaches us to “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (4).

The world around us may be a beautiful place, at times, but without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the world can only offer stress, pressure, and dissatisfaction. Jesus offers Himself and peace that passes all understanding. Where will you look for peace and joy this Christmas? The mall or God?