Advent Devotional – December 2

A lasting impact
As wars rage around us, as epidemics spread like wildfire, and as children in our own commu-nity hunger, we often wonder what impact we can have to bring peace to this disjointed world. Truth be told, God has called us to do just that … make a positive impact in a desperate world. At the end of the day, as we rest our weary heads, we must ask ourselves three simple questions:

1. Have I lived to be all that I can be to my family, my church, my community and my God?
2. Am I at peace with who I am and the impact I have made in others’ lives today?
3. Have I made the world a more peaceful place today?

Then, in the morning, if we are blessed enough to rise and face another day, we must challenge ourselves to achieve three simple goals:

1. Be the Christian I want others (including God) to see me as today.
2. Don’t do anything today that I can’t be at peace with tonight.
3. Pass at least one measure of peace along to another.

As Christians, our answer to these questions, each and every day, should be a resounding “YES.” Far too often, I am embarrassed to say that my answer to many of these is “no.” After all, as simple as these questions are, they are incredibly difficult to achieve. We are humans, and human nature is, in fact, very inwardly centered. However, God calls us out of our human shell and challenges us to live with a Christian cloak, intrinsically going against our own human nature by living a life devoted to leading with peace and compassion, for the sake of others, Christian or not.

God didn’t send his son, Jesus Christ, to sit idly by and watch the chaos of an ancient world engulf its people. Instead, God sent his son as a sacrifice, to lay down his life in name of peace, to heal, to nourish, and restore those in need. While God doesn’t call us to lay down our lives in his name, he does indeed call us to give our lives to him and to others, and to make our own sacrifices by shedding our greed, our indifference and our self-centeredness for the sake of others and in the name of peace.

May the peace of our Lord be with you and your family this Advent season.

Father God, give me the strength and courage to be the example you have called me to be in this world, that I might leave this place having imprinted a lasting mark of peace in the lives of others. Amen.
By Jonathan Williams