Christmas-ish thoughts

I'm really, really tired. As usual, I meant to go to bed waaaaaaaay before now. As usual, Christmas waltzed pleasantly by, accompanied by the dizzying whir of intensified school-craziness, traveling, and last-minute shopping. More of the traveling than usual, as I went to Tacoma this weekend, after traveling home via Tri-Cities. Unusual amounts of malls involved, too, which rather exhausts one. But also as usual, I'm still trying to figure out how to keep Jesus at the center. Not only the center of Christmas, but the center of everything I do. I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago, and she said a lot of things that really set me to thinking, as she usually does. Here are some of those thoughts.

How do I keep God the center of all I do? How do I eat, sleep, read, work, play, talk, laugh, tell stories with God completely, holistically in mind? It's relatively easy to apportion a segment of my day or week for God; it's one of those human to-do list/routine things that, if you're really determined, you can do, just like with a diet or exercise routine or whatever. Routines and to do lists are not at all foreign to me. But how, when I am sitting here and playing Apples to Apples or Rook or Hearts or whatever with my family do I retain the awareness that God is God, and how do I remain engaged with him? Am I over-thinking this, or am I somehow finally on the right track? What's still missing? Because I certainly haven't got it all right. God? How does this work?

What I do know is this:
God is the God of miracles, of creation, of miraculous change, of a hundred million things. Of comfort, of peace, and of joy. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, "Once you are in him, how could you not live forever? Once you are separated from him, how could you do anything but whither and die?" The testimonies of so many people, besides my own experience, tells me there is a God and that that God is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the God of the Bible. I have found him because he found me; I pray you, too, take the hand he is always holding out.