I was reading an Advent devotional today--lots of folks send out devotionals for Advent and I can't help but read them--and came across yet another devotion touching on the holiday rush. That does seem to be a regular subject in these times. For some reason it struck me as odd, however. I thought of older hymns--musical devotions, if you will--from my religious tradition. There are plenty recalling God's help with or asking His deliverance from such serious problems as plagues, famine or war. But for some reason we don't sing those much any more. The car bombs aren't going off in our streets. Our children aren't being orphaned by AIDS in record numbers. We may be lacking tomatoes on our burgers these days, but there are plenty of other condiments to pile on. Compared to the way things could be, we are extremely blessed. Bemoaning holiday stress seems so lame in comparison. But faith can be threatened by prosperity as much as adversity, so I suppose I shouldn't be too critical. Guess I'll pray for strength to endure the holidays and add a prayer for those who are really hurting this Christmas.