Holding the Head

In light of the current news hype and dismal proclamations, it is a temptation to be drawn into the melancholy and frustration of the times. It is apparent that everyone seems to have the answer, but at best things seem unyielding, full of contention with constant striving and politico.
Thank God for for the book of Colossians! It is a 'seated in the heavenlies' view of real life and keeps our focus in the right place so that we don't get pulled off of our perch and into the muck. God warns us in Colossians 2 about several things.

Colossians 2:6-10 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit (link - apate), after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead (spiritual nature of God) bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

We are complete in him and he is the head and we 'hold' the head.

Colossians 2:18-19 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. 

E. W. Bullinger in his A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament  defines the word 'holding':

krateo - to be strong, powerful; to have power or rule over; to have and to hold in one's power, to be master of, and so, to hold, hold fast, to attain and maintain power over.

Thayer and Smith define 'krateo' as:

to have power, be powerful, to be chief, be master of, to rule, to get possession of, to become master of, to obtain, to take hold of, to take hold of, take, seize, to lay hands on one in order to get him into one's power, to hold, to hold in the hand,to hold fast, i.e. not discard or let go, to keep carefully and faithfully, to continue to hold, to retain, of death continuing to hold one, to hold in check, restrain.  

The head sits on top of the body. The body elevates the head. It is an interesting analogy and a nice 'holding pattern'.
Jesus Christ is alive today and at the right hand of God. We are part of a time in history where we are part of the body of Christ and Jesus Christ is the head. God set it up that way. It is a great way to be nourished, knit together and increased with the increase of God. In confusion and frustration we have peace and live above the fray because of what God has given us. That's plenty to be thankful about!