Press on!

     Well, feels a bit like staggering in the general direction of the finish line...only I'm still hovering mighty near the starting line.  sigh.  Sick child, wedding, puppy, and so much to do that it's impossible to know where to start...so I sit down with the Word and hand the Lord my crummy attitude.
     Coming once again for forgiveness, grace, and renewed strength and hope in the only place where it can be found.  Lord, make me like the shepherds who heard the good news and "went with haste" to find Your Son.  Help me to come to You when to-do lists lengthen, exhaustion weakens, attitudes crumble, and perspective goes badly awry.
     For You came. This is why You came--for sinners just like me!  How could I have forgotten for the moment?  You are here--Emmanuel, "God with us."  With us here in the messes and the mess-ups and the missed opportunities.  With us...with me...with those reading these words. Right now.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming...and staying...and even now calming and renewing our weary hearts.
     A.W.Tozier writes, "The great saints of the past have all had yearning hearts.  Their longing after God all but consumed them; it propelled them onward and upward to heights toward which less ardent Christians look with languid eye and entertain no hope of reaching.  May we offer this word of exhortation: pray on, fight on, sing on!  Press on into the deep things of God.  Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as  it will!"
     Yes, Lord, help us to pray on, fight on, sing on and press on in the busy, sometimes chaotic and exhausting season.  We renounce that spirit of frustration or exhaustion or discouragement that tempts us to just throw up our hands in the midst of the fray.  Thank You for reminding me that You are with us in the battles of life and are calling us to come to You for our marching orders for the day...and then to pray on, fight on, sing on, and press on!
     And we can...because You are leading the way before us, behind us, beside us, and within us.      Time to put on some Christmas carols and start singing and pressing onward!
     To God--who came, who stayed, who leads, who enables us to press on--be all the glory.