Nobody can curse what God has blessed. I will testify that having a “Merry Christmas” has nothing to do with presents and everything to do with His presence.  And guess what?  From the beginning of time, God allows His promises to be born in strange places. “In a manger” (Luke 2:7). My Savior was born outside the world’s acceptance. “No room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).Having a "Merry Christmas" isn't about being liked by the crowd, but it does signify that not even a “King Herod” can take you out. “Stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him” (Matthew 2:13). Remember, the devil doesn’t fight us because of where we are; he fights us because of where we are going.And what God desires to be born cannot be stopped by mere man. The meaning of Christmas shows that we should never allow the extraordinary to become ordinary in our lives. “For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10).  If God has begun something in your life, do not abort the “baby” because of pain. Stay where you are in God’s protection, no matter the condemnation, for when the pain gets greater, the birth is soon after.  PUSH. DELIVER. “So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered” (Luke 2:6)."Merry Christmas" means God will deliver His promise in spite of us. “And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). And He desires to be with us, regardless of our circumstances.  “And they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23.)Understand that God assumes all responsibility when He places a promise inside of you. And even confirmations will be sent that what you birthed is from divinity--when you have Christ at its center, wrapped in humility.  “And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). And the purpose--the promise--must always give “glory to God in the highest, ” and the gift must bring “peace and goodwill toward men” (Luke 2:14).That is the meaning of "Merry Christmas."ED. NOTE: Matthew Maher is a former professional athlete and author of the newly released book U MAY B THE ONLY BIBLE SOMEBODY READS: R U LEGIBLE? His “Decisions Determine Destiny” assemblies are funded by State Farm and service youth in the tri-state area. He is the President of Soldiers For Faith Ministries and also the Director of Student Ministries at Coastal Christian Ocean City. He served four years and seven months in N.J. State prison and was released August 2014. You can learn more at www.themattmaherstory.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattmaherstory and on Instagram @matthewmaher7.

I walked a mile with Pleasure; 
She chatted all the way; 
 But left me none the wiser
For all, she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow; 
And ne’er a word said she; 
But, oh! The things I learned from her, 
When Sorrow walked with me.
- Robert Browning

 I don’t know about you, but I know so many people right now who are going through it and are in the throngs of deep suffering. They don’t understand why sorrow has befallen them. I want to remind them that God is right there in the midst of their sorrows, tragedies, and disappointments. I know this first-hand because I wrote this piece when I was in the throes of my own deep sorrow. It is my prayer that you will see the flowers of faith that can bloom when we trust and surrender the storms of our lives to Him who sits enthroned above our circumstances.-----------------What is the prerequisite to plumb the depths of your own soul -- sorrow?  It can happen only if handled in a godly manner. When you can get a hold on your sorrow and learn to understand ‘him,' you will begin to learn that ‘he’ is the plough necessary to uproot wrongly compacted soil and emotions. Our souls become trodden down over time and left hardened by the resources of life.  Until an earthquake erupts, or a trial enters, and tears up the land of our own making, opening up canals and ravines that we never knew existed because the earth of our being was never lifted.  For me, I was settled into the dirt of complacency.Oh, how we so need sorrow to better understand joy.  Oh, how we need to learn how to let sorrows' leaves fall gently on our intellect while raking away the twigs of pity and despair. Those two can have nothing to do with godly sorrow, for they will prolong the landscaping process always putting it off until tomorrow.I’ve experienced more clarity in trailing sorrow, following ‘his’ beaten path to more depth and control over my emotions.I have even found ‘his’ irrigation in my life to be the very reason there is no more irritation in my life.  No longer struggling with releasing my will for God’s.  No longer responding to life based on the surface survey; rather resting assured that God’s resources and minerals are within for my souls purvey.  God cannot properly warm me until I stop wrestling with sorrows' blanket.  His comfort wants to flood my soul's depths to filling, not just sprinkle my feelings.Therefore, let us ignore the outward commotion, go farther than the shallow emotion, and allow the sorrow of the soul to plunge us into deeper devotion.“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.  For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner:  What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication!  In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter” (II Corinthians 7:10-11).

Call yourself a Christian?If so, we need to refuse to allow the world to speak louder than us. And when our words won’t do it, our walk will. Our peers may not always believe what we say about faith, but it’s our responsibility to inspire them to believe by how we act in our faith. Example always trumps the verbal. You see, it’s easy to recite and spew out the tenets of Christianity, but success comes by living it out for others to see. Years and years of education, Bible study, and learning theology can be superseded by minutes of humility, honesty, and mercy. You can’t get a degree in kingdom thinking. No. This mindset is learned through life’s deep experiences—when the going gets tough. It must be cultivated to be manifested, and often it takes suffering to bring success to the surface.

And that is why God may trust you with trouble: it is His way to show off His grace and glory through the trouble, much like Job in the Old Testament.Job wasn’t sinless, just blameless. He walked in his integrity, and that was his security. You see, he was secure, not from the devil's external attacks that he suffered, but he was secure by his own internal resilience and reliance on God that allowed for him to suffer successfully through the attacks.Thus, our security is linked to our integrity.Yes, trouble touched him, but the trouble did not take him. Job took the trouble and turned it into triumph by his response to the trouble, not by what he knew intellectually, but how he responded to it faithfully.This is abundantly clear in Job’s words, “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You” (Job 42:5). It was through Job’s adversity that He was able to get a closer more intimate glimpse of the character of God and His faithfulness through our trials.However, don’t be fooled if you have found yourself with no problems because the absence of trouble doesn’t always mean blessing.  In fact, the absence of trouble could mean that you are not worthy of the testing. Keep in mind that the devil doesn’t mess with those who pose no spiritual threat.  Nor does God test our present unless He’s preparing us for something bigger in the future.The truth of the matter is: No one is actively looking for trouble, but if it comes our way, the ultimate goal should be to magnify God through the trouble; because the world is watching and the Christian’s example needs to be the steady teaching that should never be lost by a multitude of words and meaningless platitudes that don’t line up with our living example.

ED. NOTE: Matthew Maher is a former professional athlete and author of the newly released book U MAY B THE ONLY BIBLE SOMEBODY READS: R U LEGIBLE? His “Decisions Determine Destiny” assemblies are funded by State Farm and service youth in the tristate area. He is the president of Soldiers for Faith Ministries and also the director of Student Ministries at Coastal Christian Ocean City. He served four years and seven months in N.J. State prison and was released August 2014. You can learn more at www.themattmaherstory.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattmaherstory and Instagram @matthewmaher7.

his column is contemplation from my newly-released book: "Imprisoned by Peace: A View Apart." Written in prison, the book contains 40 reflections that will strike a chord with anyone in need of a spiritual perspective to the natural events in our lives. There is much more to silence than meets the ear. I am around noise all day and all night living on a tier with 38 men. Constant chatter, nonstop commotion, perpetual disturbance. So silence is a sweet and welcome respite; but it is tender, delicate, and fragile. And if misused by our thoughts, it can quickly become noise.Late one night, with silence, at last, blanketing the darkness, an excruciating sound suddenly broke through with no warning.  Confused and anxious, we jumped up to decipher the reason behind the noise. What we discovered was one of our fellow inmates, with no respect for the silence or regard for the rest of us, dragging the heavy metal table on the tier to his area. The sound of the metal legs screeching at stratospheric decibels as they were forced across the concrete floor created a din that was responsible for inciting a stampede of elephants inhabiting the savannah grasslands of Africa.  The uproar continued and grew, as many inmates became enraged.I sat up in my bed and watched as the perpetrator gave the perfect response to his clamorous transgression, an answer that confirmed the devil’s plot to drown out the silent voice of God with chaos, noise, and commotion.  The perp said pridefully, “This is *** prison. Go back to sleep!”This ill-mannered reply was met with even more rude rebuttals. Thus silence was removed completely from the remedy.  I sat there in amazement as I realized that the populace often creates noise to distract, intimidate or gain attention for the noisemaker.  Sometimes, our response to the noise merely adds to the present tumult. Now I am fully convinced there must be much more to silence if the world fears its entrance. Silence rarely has its way in here; but if it does and when it does, I know I must be ready to use it.  “Be silent in the presence of the Lord God” (Zephaniah 1:7).My "View Apart" has taught me that silence creates an atmosphere for clear listening, free observance, and stilled anxiety. Silence allows our hearts and minds to think, and our spirit to feel God’s peace. Now it makes total sense why the world desires to block this out.In silence, we may experience the “noise” of blessing and comfort.  With our own attempts to break through the world’s commotion and with our own accusations, our voice only adds to the tyranny of noise. Thus, we miss the marvel that would follow in our silent response, for we must follow the example of Jesus himself, who made them marvel greatly in His silence. “Then Pilate said to Him, ‘Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?’  But He answered Him not one word so that the governor marveled greatly.” (Matthew 27: 13, 14). “And when oppressed and afflicted, (Jesus) opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).If I can catch this silence in a place of unceasing noise, and learn to prepare in that silence, then maybe I will be able to make more noise for God’s glory. But silence in prison is always interrupted and done so abruptly.  Thoughts are broken and preparation thwarted.  An attempt to make it right only adds to the wrong.  This is why I am convinced of the power of silence; and if I can just grasp it while it remains, even in suffering, I will not speak out foolishly.Likewise, as with an approaching storm, calm is always prior to the noise; and it is during this time of silence that one must prepare.  Essentially, preparation opens us to the entry of peace when the chaos arrives, for it is impossible to be immobilized by a storm when you are centralized in Christ. Therefore, whether before the storm, in the storm or after the storm, “there is a great calm” with Jesus (Matthew 8:26). ED. NOTE: Matthew Maher is a former professional athlete and author of the book "U MAY B THE ONLY BIBLE SOMEBODY READS: R U LEGIBLE?" His “Decisions Determine Destiny” assemblies are funded by State Farm and service youth in the tristate area. He is the president of Soldiers for Faith Ministries and also the director of Student Ministries at Coastal Christian Ocean City. He served four years and seven months in N.J. State prison and was released August 2014. You can learn more at www.themattmaherstory.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattmaherstory and Instagram @matthewmaher7.

Note: The following was written by my mother, Andrea Maher, and distributed by her non-profit, the ‘Be Still Foundation’, in conjunction with the national ministry  ‘Hope for the Brokenhearted.’ As a result of the response that it received, I felt compelled to share this voice of hope for the many in our area that have suffered “The Ignoble Death.”) I remember the phone call like it was yesterday; arrows that pierce the heart have a tendency to embed themselves into one’s memory. I was still smack in the center of my own storm, when a well-intentioned friend called to tell me about the loss of, yet another, young life. She tearfully choked out how this death was horrific, unbearable, and a true tragedy on so many levels. “How must his family be coping under such extreme loss?” she exclaimed. You see, this young man died in the line of duty. He was a hero with a magnanimous future ahead of him.My heart sunk deeper with each lamenting word about his ‘good life,’ ‘his accomplishments,’ ‘his many accolades’ and, ‘oh how much his mother had lost in his death.’ She must have forgotten that I too was a mom who had suffered loss a few months earlier. It was my oldest son. But his was one of the ‘ignoble deaths.’ Those who have died as a result of drugs, alcohol, suicide or other consequence of unhealthy choices, lives whose inherent worth—especially in death-- are devalued and overshadowed by their struggles and ultimate demise.These losses are different. They come with public scrutiny and judgment and add strain and guilt to an already traumatic situation. There is no legacy of praise or honor because of the wonderful life the deceased had lived. Instead the passing of this person will be acknowledged by some as an act of failure, a self-inflicted collapse unworthy of any attention aside from the fodder it provides for the gossip mill or pity from those who feel sorry for you.BUT that is the world’s view--NOT God’s! So in the midst of my own soul conflict, I centered my thoughts on Jesus. He is the only One who looks at all mankind as valuable regardless of who we are, or what credentials, status, or achievements we wear. So much so, that while we were sinning against Him, He sacrificed His own life for us. He is the One who graciously claims ALL who have accepted His free gift of life and views them as royalty, chosen ones -- flaws and all.My son struggled much of his life, but he also loved God and his missteps often caused a new and fresh revelation on the character, goodness, mercy and unfailing love of God. Gifts so much more valuable than earthly treasures.I imagine Jesus was waiting at those pearly gates with arms wide open as He saw one of his children coming home. He didn’t evaluate his life –or his death--on the basis of works. He simply saw his redeemed heart and welcomed him home.And in His eyes, all broken hearts weigh equally, and thankfully He is a restorer of all things broken.ED. NOTE: Matthew Maher is a former professional athlete and author of the books "U MAY B THE ONLY BIBLE SOMEBODY READS: R U LEGIBLE?" & “Imprisoned by Peace”. His “Decisions Determine Destiny” assemblies are funded by State Farm and service youth in the tristate area. He is the president of Soldiers for Faith Ministries and also the director of Student Ministries at Coastal Christian Ocean City. He served four years and seven months in N.J. State prison and was released August 2014. You can learn more atwww.themattmaherstory.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattmaherstory and Instagram @matthewmaher7.