Finding peace this Christmas
Image Credit: Jonathan Chng on Unsplash
Jason Spender,
20th Dec 2023
Tags:
Life
Blog
Anxiety
Christmas
Depression
Mental health
Peace
I love Christmas time: the lights, laughter, fun and food and seeing friends and family. Christmas has always been one of my favourite times of the year (except for the cold weather).
2023 has been quite an eventful year for me, with lots of difficult situations making it hard to hold onto peace in my life.
Around the world there has been a lot of unrest too: the war between Ukraine and Russia; there were devastating earthquakes around the world; the Titan Sub Implosion and Israel declared war on Hamas. Just to name a few things.
All of these events that we see happening around the world, on top of all the issues that we face in our own personal lives, can really weigh us down.
In my own life, I know how hard it is to stay away from worry, anxiety and fear. Feelings that seem to come so naturally to us. Before we know it, these things have taken up residence in our heart and mind.
Does it really matter though if I have peace in my life? What difference does it make?
I remember a time when I had said something to one of my parents that wasn’t very nice. I tried to carry on with the day, but I had completely lost my peace. My mind couldn’t focus and I wasn’t able to prepare the things I needed to for work.
Losing my peace totally effected every area of my life.
Losing my peace totally effected every area of my life.
Sadly, there are so many situations that can cause us to lose our peace. Sometimes we are responsible for hurting someone else. Sometimes it is another person that wounds us.
Yet, the challenge to each one us is the same. We are responsible for guarding our own heart, because no-one else can do it for us.
So, even if life is tough and we feel like we are going through a very difficult situation, we have to keep peace in our own heart.
This Christmas time is a perfect time to start. Why? Because Christmas and peace go perfectly together. At Christmas, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, who is known as the Prince of Peace!
In other words, true peace can only be found in Jesus.
