If you’re like me, sometime over the last week or so you heard a song at Target or while you were getting a haircut or in your car or [fill in the blank], and you woke up this morning with it like a bad rash that won’t leave you for the next four days. My mental melodic torture of the past few mornings has been the seasonal classic Sleigh Ride. “Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, ring-ting tingle-ing, too.” Ugh. Make it stop. Please. Make it stop. And so it begins… The Holiday Season.
Experiment #1: Go back and re-read the last sentence of the previous paragraph out loud a few times. What images come up in your mind? What emotions do those words elicit? What’s happening to your stress level right now?
Experiment #2: Change The Holiday Season to The Season of Advent. What images come up in your mind? What emotions do those words elicit? What’s happening to your stress level right now?
Interestingly subtle-not-so-subtle difference, eh? One Season delivers stress, the other Season provides peace. How is that possible?
Studies have shown that our society experiences the highest levels of stress between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The Holiday season. It’s packed with more office parties to attend and presents to buy and decorations to put up and nativity costumes to make and relatives to connect with and traffic to fight and cookies to bake and expectations to fulfill than we can handle. So we often endure or muddle our way through the “most wonderful time of the year.”
I think the Apostle Paul had just finished his Thanksgiving turkey (ok, not really) when he said these words to the Philippian church:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent
or praiseworthy-think about such things.
Paul offers a serious strategy for surviving stress in our lives. He says don’t worry about ANYTHING, pray about EVERYTHING, give thanks IN ALL THINGS, and think about the RIGHT THINGS. Easier said than done, right? Did I mention Paul wrote those words while chained to a guard 24/7 while awaiting execution? Wow. And we still struggle to follow these words!?!
In any event, following Paul’s advice here is much easier when we stay focused on the Season of Advent instead of the Holiday Season. This subtle and seemingly semantical switch directly applies Paul’s encouragement to think about the RIGHT THINGS. You can let the peace of God stand guard against anxiety and stress this year by starting each day remembering that this is the Season of Advent, anticipating the arrival of the Savior of the world. We’re going to make it a little easier to do this with a daily Advent lifeline scripture to read from December 1st to December 25th.
So this year, don’t worry, pray, be thankful, and remember it’s the Season of Advent. May the peace of God pour over you like the warm peanut brittle oozes out over the wax paper on the counter. May it fill every nook and cranny of your soul and make you as cozy as “two birds of a feather would be.” Ugh, make it stop, please make it stop!