Channel of Peace

Make me a channel of your peace. Remember that song? What the world needs now is love sweet love. Remember that one? 

The world is in desperate need for both of those things – peace and love. Those are the two blessings often wished on each other as we end letters or say our goodbyes. As has often been said, peace is not the absence of war – it is something more pervasive than that. True peace, shalom, penetrates to the inner self and radiates out affecting all those around us. Love is not the absence of hate. It is active, demonstrable, positive and strong and has the power to dispel negative feelings and overcome antagonism and even hatred. 

God is the source of peace and love and he pours it out on us through his grace. We don’t deserve such gifts as he gives and yet he continues to lavish us with his blessings. 

Someone said to me yesterday that every day is a good day when you are not pushing them up but admiring them. A riddle easily solved. Daisies of course. 

So today is a good day. A day when I can give myself to God to become a channel of his peace and love, not because I am good but because he is full of grace and mercy. 

You’ve got to be careful what or who you allow to use you as a channel. You are always safe with God. And what the world needs now - is Jesus.

Light of the World

Russian friends told us recently that a law in their country requires headlights to be in a permanent ON position, day and night. One of them admitted that frequently he had drained the battery by forgetting to turn them off when he stopped and parked his car.

Years ago, the day that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, as an 18-year-old I drove to work, heartbroken, and put the headlights on the car as a show of sorrow and respect. I, too, forgot to turn them off, and drained the battery and had to have my dad and grandpa come and jump start me after my shift.

When it is daylight, it is hard to notice the lights shining. When it is night, it would be rare to walk away from a car with the headlights still blazing.

There is a lot of reference to light in the Bible. Jesus is the light of the world. We, too, are the light of the world, as Christians. Not that we are the source of light, but we are conduits of the Light, as long as we remain connected to the Source.

Christmas is a time of celebrating. It is the darkest time of the year – today is the shortest day I believe – and yet it is at times of deep darkness that the light is more apparent.

The light shines in the darkness, John wrote, and the darkness cannot extinguish it. Light drives out the darkness. 

May the light of Christ shine on you, in you, and through you today.