Figured Out?

Do you have everything figured out?

Do you have God figured out?

Are you working out your faith, or are you living in such a way that God doesn't have room to work or move?

I've always loved the story of Abraham and Sarah...of their journey toward faith and the way God taught them and made them into something they couldn't dream for themselves.

Abraham and Sarah are considered parents of our faith...not because they had everything figured out, but because they finally realized that maybe they weren't supposed to figure God out.  Maybe they were supposed to let God surprise them with joy.  They allowed grace to spring up within them and they waited for the fulfillment of God's promise to them.  

The same elements are present in the Advent season.  We recognize that we need grace to break into our hearts and spirits to heal us.  We need to believe that God's promises to us and to the world will be fulfilled.  We need to laugh at ourselves...because we don't know what we need; God does.

Longing, hoping, waiting...these are quickly skipped over in hot pursuit of the celebration.  But in the longing for something better, for something more...in the hoping for God to work and move and fulfill promise...in the waiting (hard as it may be) for whatever is best for us...

That is where we begin to know what our faith means to us and to the world...and to truly celebrate...for unto us a child is born, a Son is given...and his name shall be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Not for one day, but for an eternity.

Joy

Let's think about joy.

It's the next focus of Advent.  

Joy...my sister's middle name.  Joy...the beginning of a very familiar Christmas carol.  Joy...something that seems elusive in our world this day.

When is the last time you experienced true joy?  I'm thinking back to the day my first niece was born and when I held her in my arms for the first time.  It was as if time stood still and only the two of us were having a shared moment...a moment of knowing that we belonged to each other.  Yes, you may think that is a ridiculous notion, but I'm telling you, there's no joy like a new baby, especially one that deeply connected to you.

One of my good friends recently announced that she is pregnant and they are expecting another baby girl.  My heart is welling up right now just thinking about this new life that I get to be a part of.  

True joy comes in the realization that God is continually making things new.  New life in a baby's cry, new life in a sunrise, new life in the transformation of grace in a person's life, new life in a student recognizing the letter "B," new life in waking up for the day, new life in a hug that gets you through the day.

Joy is life.  Joy is not happiness.  If happiness is our goal, we will fail and be miserable.  If joy is our goal, we will see the transformations all around us.  We will begin to see how God is transforming us within to be joy to others.

Joy to the world.

Hear the Christ child's cry.

Look into his face and know that he belongs to you and you belong to him.

Be joy today.

Noel

Noel...good news...a shout of joy.  

Noel...come and see what God has done!

The light of the world given FOR us!

We sang this song yesterday at our Christmas program at church.  It is powerful to think that God wanted to give us such joy, not only in that one moment, but for eternity.  The light hasn't left.  Christ keeps being reborn.  Rejoice!

Our world...

Our world is full...full of people, full of busy people, full of uncertainty and violence.  Our world is overwhelming to think about and to pray for...it's hard to know how to pray for this place, these people, for our own people.  And yet, Christmas comes.  The time has come for Mary to give birth to our Savior...and maybe that's precisely what we need.  We need a Savior.  We need some joy.  We need hope to creep into our minds and hearts again. We need the Prince of Peace.  We need unconditional Love to rule our world.  

"Christmas comes every time we see God in other persons.
The human and the holy meet in Bethlehem or in Times Square,
for Christmas comes like a golden storm on its way to Jerusalem--
determinedly, inevitably. . . .
Even now it comes
in the face of hatred and warring--
no atrocity too terrible to stop it,
no Herod strong enough,
no hurt deep enough,
no disaster shattering enough.
For someone on earth will see the star,
someone will hear the angel voices,
someone will run to Bethlehem,
someone will know peace and goodwill:
the Christ will be born!"

-Ann Weems

Will you let this reality settle into your very being? We have a Savior.  He has come!  He continues to come...in fresh cut grass, in a baby's first cry, in a friend's embrace, in a million tiny moments we ignore each day...Christ is born again and again. 

Hope

The focus on Advent this week, this anticipation of Christ's coming, is HOPE.  The definition of hope is "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen." We have all hoped for something to happen in our lives, whether it be in the here and now, temporal, or whether it is something big that we feel will change our lives for the better.  Two days ago I was swimming and we were doing a workout...my legs were burning and I was already feeling like lead in the water.  I asked my friend, "with or without fins?"  In my head I repeated over and over again, "please say with fins, please say with fins, please say with fins!' I didn't get the result I wanted, but I'm sure my legs are better for it...maybe.

I have friends here in TN that hoped and prayed and waited for a child.  I know this is the story for many couples, but it doesn't make it less hard.  I prayed for them, hoped for them, grieved with them, hurt for them...and it was hard to understand why someone's deepest desire was not met by our loving God.  When our hearts are crying out for something that we feel will make us better or more whole, it's hard to hope...it's hard to believe that goodness will come for us too.

And yet, last October, Dana Claire entered our lives and continues to exude hope and joy every time I see her.  I look at her and hope is reborn.  She is a bright light to all of us.  She is a precious gift and I don't think we could have imagined what joy she brings to life.

If we are all honest, there is something deep within our hearts that we ponder and wonder about...that we think may be realized one day.  And sometimes darkness wins and we try to throw that hope away and just sit in our sulky places and whine about what isn't being fulfilled. 
Maybe hope for us truly comes when we see hope realized in others and embrace it.  We turn from our own deep longings in order to see how God is fulfilling the longings of our world.

When Mary went to visit Elizabeth, Elizabeth's response was not to brag about how she had become pregnant at such an advanced age, but to rejoice at what God had done in Mary.  Elizabeth's joy came from realizing the hope of the world was near.  Maybe that's the preparation we need in our own lives.  Embrace another's joy today and it will become your own.

Being Able to Recognize Light

It struck me today that in order to know what light is, we have to be able to recognize darkness.  It is in true darkness that we understand the importance of light.  Light is what gives us hope in darkness.  Light dispels darkness and fears.  Fears subside as light pours into an area that was once full of darkness.

"Too often our answer to the darkness
is not running toward Bethlehem
but running away.
We ought to know by now that we can't see 
where we're going in the dark.
Running away is rampant. . .
separation is stylish:
separation from mates, from friends, from self.
Run and tranquilize,
don't talk about it,
avoid.
Run away and join the army
of those who have already run away.
When are we going to learn that Christmas Peace
comes only when we turn and face the darkness?
Only then will we be able to see
the Light of the World."

This season don't give in to the urge to run.  Don't give in to the need to tranquilize your feelings or thoughts.  It's too easy to busy ourselves into not thinking about things that take time and effort.  But you know as well as I do that those things are the things that are worthwhile.  We have these moments, these days, these people in our lives...and they are fleeting.  Don't sprint away from the light...embrace it.  Sit in the darkness, shut your mouth, open your eyes, and step toward Bethlehem.  It's a journey that will leave you forever changed...this season and beyond.

Anticipating

In this Advent season, let us go out in the darkness and look for the star, for it surely is shining.  The light of God has never stopped shining, beckoning us to look, to follow, and to believe that it is most certainly shining for us.  We have a journey to walk.  We have a story to share.  We have a life to live.  We have these moments in our every day lives that can become moments that impact eternity.  We are the shepherds in the fields, tending our lives, doing the ordinary, thinking that what we do doesn't really matter...and yet a star appears.  We have to choose whether we pay attention or not, whether we leave the ordinary to see something extraordinary.  

We are the wise men.  We have gifts that are worth much. We have voices and abilities and resources.  And we are called to offer them to our King.  Will we hoard them, bury them, or let them lie dormant?  Or will we journey to give them back to our King?  We are Joseph...unsure and asked to do hard things that we don't understand.  Will we walk away when it gets hard, or will we obey and see what God does?  We are Mary.  We hold something incredible within us.  We ponder it.  We marvel at this gift within us. But do we keep it to ourselves, thinking it's ours...it belongs to us...or do we share it with the world?

Their story is our story.  How will we respond?