Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

“They say it’s ‘The most wonderful time of the year,’ yet it sometimes feels more like the most stressful time of the year… If you struggle with anxiety through the holidays, you’re not alone… The truth is, there’s nothing you must buy, nothing you must do to make this a good Christmas. Christmas is already good because our good God has already given us the greatest gift the world has ever known: Jesus.” — “Breath as Prayer,” Jennifer Tucker

This opening truth reminds me of Skipping Christmas, (John Grisham), followed by the movie Christmas with the Kranks. I smile each time I reminisce about this silly, tongue-in-cheek answer to the stress of CHRISTmas. When I get ‘wrapped around the axel’ with all the ‘to-do’s’ I need to remember ‘The Reason For The Season!’

Recently, on the radio I heard these lyrics, a familiar song and yet the words I have never caught!

“Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices, Oh night divine, Oh night when Christ was born.

Truly he taught us to love one another, his law is love and his gospel is peace, chains shall he break for the slave is his brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful raise we, Let all us within us praise his holy name, Christ is the Lord, Oh praise his name forever, his power and glory, evermore proclaim!” — “O Holy Night,’ Adolphe Adam.

“As we celebrate the greatest gift in history, our Savior’s birth, as we focus on Jesus, worship his goodness, his love, his sacrifice… we are told to magnify him, glorify him together.

Magnify simply means to make bigger. What if you made God a bigger part of your life? Not just Christmas Day, but every day?

What if you allowed his goodness, his will, his plans to consume your goodness, his will, his plans to consume your thinking? What if you made his presence the biggest priority of all? If you are going to magnify anything this Christmas, magnify Christ.” — Craig Groeschel

Be present (vs. buy presents), wrap someone in a hug (vs. wrap gifts), send peace (vs. send gifts), donate food (vs. shop for food), be the light (vs. see the lights)

Blessed CHRISTmas to all!

Robin (Beckman) Gudal is intentional in life, a wife, momma, nana, friend and a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.