Peace is the result of love at work in our life. Peace is rest when love is involved. When love is at rest, peace is now.

All that sounds pretty churchy doesn’t it? The real answer is it has nothing to do with church or faith or Christianity. We all know there are people that have never darkened the door of a church but they show love and are givers and a certain level of peace follows those actions. In that situation the only missing component is Joy. I believe the only way you can have true deep joy is to know God and show love.

The fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 list all the attributes of a life that is in step with God. The first three listed are Love, Joy and Peace. I am not a bible scholar but it seems to me that they come in that order. You cannot jump to peace without first passing love and joy. Joy is the deep sense of belonging that you get when you act in love. That deep sense of belonging manifests itself in a peace that passes all understanding. This peace I speak of is that quiet settling and comfortable pause that can only come from love and joy. It says that all is right in the world at this moment. It doesn’t say everything is perfect without problems, rather it does say that for this moment, I am at rest.

This Christmas if you want to test this theory without anyone knowing, carry a few extra 20’s in your pocket and when you see someone in need, go up to them and whisper that you were lead to give them the money and then walk away. As you are walking away, take an inventory of your joy level and I suspect you will recognize what I am talking about in this blog post.

I have done this on many occasions and I can tell you that the quickest way to get rid of stress and rebalance your life is to start giving. When you give to others something that is from God begins to melt your heart and loosen the ties of stress, anxiety, jealousy and anger in your life. Give it a try and then come back and comment on this blog post. Happy holidays. KT