Chasing Less, Finding More

Read The Daily:
“I leave you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.” — John 14:27

If you’ve ever seen Jingle All the Way, you know the chaos: a dad sprinting all over town, fighting crowds, chasing a toy that keeps slipping through his fingers. It’s funny because it’s exaggerated — but it’s also a little too real. Most of us have lived our own version of that frantic chase, hoping that one more thing will finally make everything feel right. But Jesus offers something we can’t track down in a store or shove into a shopping cart: peace. The kind that actually stays.

What if the pressure you feel isn’t a sign that you’re failing — but a sign that you’re looking in the wrong direction? We chase the perfect gift, the perfect moment, the perfect holiday… and sometimes we miss the simple presence that makes life meaningful in the first place. Peace doesn’t arrive wrapped in shiny paper — it shows up when we slow down long enough to notice it.

I once heard someone describe Christmas as “a beautiful moment buried under a thousand tiny urgencies.” And isn’t that exactly what happens? We hurry ourselves into exhaustion trying to create magic, when the magic was never in the hustle — it was in the quiet places. In being present. In breathing. In remembering we’re loved without performing.

Prayer for the Day

God what are you  showing me?  What am I going to do about it?
God help me to see one person that I can serve through a kind word, random act of kindness, or simple gift today?
Make sure you complete the reading or comment today.

Read The New Testament In A Year

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.” Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.” As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God. But some became stubborn, rejecting his message and publicly speaking against the Way. So Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia—both Jews and Greeks—heard the word of the Lord. Acts 19:1-10

The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming! Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. And the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. I heard the size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops. And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses had heads like lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths. One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues—by the fire and smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses. Their power was in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people. But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:12-21

Read More – Bible Project Overviews: Acts, Revelation