Keeping the Holidays Stress Free and Satan Free

It is amazing how the enemy likes to sneak into our lives and cause chaos during moments are special and fleeting.  It dawned on me over the Christmas holiday.

I was playing a worship set for our Christmas Eve service at church, and the entire practice session was chaotic for me.  I didn’t have the sheet music, so I was running around trying to get it.  When I couldn’t find it, I grabbed one of the copies and ran to the printing room.

As I was on stage getting ready to play, I noticed that half of the songs were not in the packet that I grabbed and copied.  I managed to find some of them laying around mixed in with previous sets, but one of the last songs was not there.  So as we started playing the last song, I was able to get a glimpse of the notes as the singers were singing, but then inadvertently shifted the music sheet around making it impossible for me to see!! 

I got annoyed because I wanted to play but I couldn’t do it, so I sat down.  Right as I was starting to get annoyed… it dawned on me.  I was exactly where Satan wanted me to be.  I was annoyed and my focus was taken off of where it should have been: Christ and the experience of helping people connect with him through worship.  I was in the process of getting neutralized.

Needless to say, I lightened up shortly after.  But then my thoughts drifted… what about how we get so bent out of shape over not buying the perfect gift (or receiving the perfect gift)?  Or how we bust our butts to make a turkey dinner, and by the time the dinner is done we are so stressed out that no one wants to be around us?... this is Satan doing what Satan does… stealing our joy, killing our mood, and destroying relationships.  (John 10:10- thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy).

I went to one Christmas Eve dinner and one Christmas Day dinner this year.  The thing that impressed me was that it was very low stress.  Both hosts told me that they wanted to keep it low key because they did not want the added stress.  I smiled in light of what I noticed earlier, and I found that we had a low stress time and it allowed me to focus on the reason for the season… God, family, friends, etc.

Food for thought:  pay attention to how often those stressors happen and where they happen.  I am not saying that he took my song sheets or anything like that, but instead he saw an opportunity to frustrate me an capitalized on it.  In addition to that, think about the repercussions to allowing your day/night being ruined by those incidents that occur.

All that being said, hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and that the New Year Brings blessings beyond measure to you and your family!  And always remember, do not sweat the small things because often times they are just small things to distract us… in doing so, you don’t give the enemy any room to steal, kill, or destroy!