“Where is the peace?” while being reminiscent of the funny burger commercial depicting a little old lady yelling “Where’s The Beef?” isn’t so amusing when we consider the inability to hold on to the peace we glimpsed at Christmastime.  We want or may resolve to forge into the New Year with that peace, that is, peace of mind amidst all the circumstances around us.  But something happens and it fades in the first hours of Monday morning when we are back to work, back to “normal.”

What brings us to lack of Peace? Lack of peace does not come visibly.  It comes unseen and stealthy in conditions called: frenzy, hustle, busyness, misplaced loyalty to a job or a person or coming up with resolutions for a new year that cannot be known ahead of time and a new year that may totally make said resolution meaningless after all.  Peace comes unseen as well but in opposite conditions:  acceptance of reality, confidence, continuing a direction toward spiritual maturity regardless of what the new year brings, and unshakeable calm.

How do we see the unseeable? The focal point for peace or discontent can be understood in “seeable” behavior, that is, relationships in your life at any moment.  For example, lack of peace and relational immaturity might be behaviors like:
•    disappointment from what wasn’t under the Christmas tree.
•    trying to jog off holiday hors d’oeuvres without considering the pattern of gluttony still present.
•    scrambling to get as many expenses for office or healthcare on the record before the 2010 start-over position rather than taking in, being refreshed by the slow down to end the year.
•    trying to get a jump start on 2010 at the office while everyone else is gone.
•    virtually missing the opportunity for a holiday break by worrying over what might happen next year.
•    setting empty-action resolutions and missing the opportunity to simply look forward to how this next year will move you forward in the purpose for which you were born.

People who can take breaks, go on vacation, give back for no specific reward, stay involved in how this country maintains freedom … are the ones who have discovered peace, i.e., they know this life is bigger than:
•    a pay check
•    15 minutes of fame
•    winning the lottery
•    having a baby
•    fooling a vendor by returning a used item as unused
•    getting revenge
•    getting marginal tax breaks
•    being adored.
Peaceful folks don’t have to “get away” from it all with trips, workaholism, drugs, or unhealthy liaisons because peaceful folks have discovered how to have it all, all the time; they have found lasting peace, the perfect getaway that never goes away.

Relational voids erode peace.
No matter who you are, you are designed for relationship.  No way out.  Taking advantage of that basic need, there is a virtual relationship connection fervor that creates more frenzy and less peace, that is, instead of balancing life with necessary face-to-face relationships it literally may increase the size of the relationship void.  Satisfying the relational need nor finding peace occurs by thinking either is attached to virtual connections such as the number of “friends” on facebook; twitter retweets for things  you’ve written, LinkedIn invites, etc.

Social media is not “new”;  it is an updated version of a very old unsettling, peace-less, long-term unsatisfying relationship breaker I-can-have-more-marbles-than-you game with little regard for full relationship.  Instead of nurturing the basic need for relationship, the new version of the game absorbs huge chunks of time and attention while seemingly promoting the game player into connection and lots of “relationships.”  Details of our lives are now online with a surface completeness never before possible; Yet, when one is clicking the keys in response to a message, invite, tweet, etc. it seems so personal, close, and private. Beware the one-to-one that is really one-to-world.  Much to learn about social media and keeping it in relational perspective that generates peace not feverish “keep up with all my peeps” who were never your “peeps” in the first place.

So, where is the Peace for 2010?
Peace springs from the same place it always has and always will no matter how technically advanced we become; it is where your treasure is.  If your treasure is nurturing and growing healthy relationships, peace comes from the fruit of your life as it is spelled out in relationships, that is, from growing spiritually.  Think about this.  What do you remember about your grandfather, favorite uncle, cherished mentor?  How much each had or how much each loved you? What memory do you want to leave behind for those you say you love?

Quick checkpoint:  Overall, considering work and home, relationships in your life are: Exciting? Fun? Nourishing? Embittered? Lackluster? Invigorating? Encouraging? Neutral? Don’t think about them? Demanding? Battle-weary? Secondary to career? Not a priority? The list goes on.  Regardless of your version of that list, who you are in your heart of hearts just passed before your mind’s eye.  That recognition deciphers, if you allow it to, your level of sustained ability to live at peace even at the most trying times.  No one lives in peace without attention to building relational connections and first based on the relationship model of you and the One who created you.

The world is broken and will not yield serenity through circumstances but it can give us a glimpse of serenity through our everyday connections to other people so that we are constantly renewing a peaceful mindset.  When the day grates on you, for example, it is not because something physical may be chaffing like a scarf that is scratchy, shoes that is creating a blister, or a paper cut on your finger. More likely, the day that grates on your last nerve is one wherein a relationship is out of joint, tough, unyielding, worrisome, “complicated”, etc.  Denying the relationship the effort it would take to move this from a grating day to a celebrated day will bring the grating day back to you again and again.  When a comedian comments on those who work your last nerve, you laugh but it was not funny when you lived it unless you are rooted in peace that carries a sense of humor with it.

Question to discover your peace status: “Do you understand this moment in the context of eternity?”  If you can answer yes, peace will find you.  Answer no, and there is much work yet to do.  Life is not about you; it is about where this life ends and in relationship to whom.
Peace from last year. At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that the future holds; yet, anxiety is apt to arise from remembering and fearing a repeat of last year’s failures.  But the peaceful heart understands we must have a memory of the past  lest we get into a shallow security in the present; learn the lesson from yesterday to live the future fearlessly ready to learn more.
Peace for to-morrow. A gracious revelation of the knowledge of a plan for our world bigger than anyone or anything in it  assures us that Divine Providence still watches over those called to His purposes just as He did our forefathers as they forged this nation with arms and battles but with internal resolve from a peace beyond mortal understanding, pure peace of purpose. Tomorrow is about going forward taking the part of the past necessary to continue each resolve to live your part of the plan set for you before you were born.
Peace for to-day. “Slow down, you move too fast.  Gotta make the morning last” sings the 59th Street Bridge song lyrics.  As we go forth into the coming year, let it be neither in the haste of impetuous, denial nor with the flight of impulsive “gotta push harder till it works or I win.” Let this new year be lived with the patient peace of knowing that the learned lessons of our yesterdays present reminders to us for a smoother tomorrow.
McCall magazine came to Norman Rockwell in 1957 to do its cover.  It took Rockwell 11 years to paint “Home for Christmas” – rare because he rarely painted a landscape – usually just faces.  For the last 20 years people of Stockbridge, Massachusetts (the setting of the painting) have tried to recreate the painting in real life.  Usually art tries to imitate life;  here is just the reverse.  Tens of thousands go every year trying to recapture that Spirit of Christmas. Every Christmas Movie tries to recreate this Spirit.  We long for this peace.

Use this season of joy and peace just past, not to wait for it again next year but to live differently from now to next year’s season that can then be a continuing not a beginning again just for a season. Keep the spirit of the Peace of Christmas by running with endurance the race set before you in 2010 knowing the prize is not that you get the most marbles but that you live it in peace regardless of circumstances.

The One who brought you here never intended to leave you here without His peace that goes beyond any human understanding.  The offer to you at birth was serenity of heart, but only those who accept the gift of Heaven we celebrate at Christmas can keep peace flowing into the New Year’s every moment big and small.  2010 is a good time to begin again, to seek and live that for which you have been called and for which you have been equipped.  If you are already there, share the good news and help someone else get there. We are only as peaceful as we demonstrate through the of nurturing others.