One of the very best gifts we can give ourselves this Christmas is to respond to God who never stops moving toward us in love. But how can we do that? How can we receive and respond to God's wonderful gift of love?

We respond to God by responding to the world as it is and people as they are. Of course, this assumes that we are able to perceive the world as it is and people as they are. Unfortunately, we of transgress the healthy space that naturally exists between us and others, filling that space with projected opinions, inherited categories, worries, and judgments about the world and about people. But as we let go the need to categorize and control, we can begin to perceive the world as it is and people as they are. And in the process, we respond to God's presence we respond to God with great honesty and intimacy.

We also respond to God by responding to ourselves as we are. Of course, discovering who we  are in a genuine way requires an inward journey of letting go and being open, a discipline of reflection and introspection, and some time and effort spent being rather than doing. Such a journey requires questioning many of the rigid categories and negative judgments we have of ourselves.

Finally, we can respond with action to those tiny nudges of God, those very subtle and easily nudges that are easily missed amid our anxieties, busyness, and task orientation. The "still, small voice" of God's Spirit invites us to place ourselves as we are - not our best selves, but just ourselves - at the service of the world, of other people as they are - not necessarily as we wish they were! In this way, as we empty ourselves, we become filled with purpose, meaning, and God's Spirit.

One of the very best gifts you can give yourself this Christmas, and throughout the New Year, is to listen, see, hear, and love as they are - without needing to fix them and without needing to agree with them or even fully understand them. Ask questions without needing to control the answers. Allow yourself to be filled up like a reservoir that gives of its abundant overflowing. And give thanks for the peace of God and the expression of that peace seen in Jesus.

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
  
Jack Price

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