endurance

endurance

I am working on a new painting.  I have to tell you it seems so long since I have painted one, and I felt stuck.

I have begun several only to cover them up. Painting is not coming easy for me. Which is rather interesting as I think about it. You see, I have been thinking about my "word" for the year. At the beginning of 2010 I chose abide as my word which prompted my Monday abide posts.  The word endurance keeps coming to me. I have not settled on it, but I am sure leaning towards it. I will continue to ask God these last few days if this is the word He has for me.

The yellow looks more orange here, I used Naples Yellow Hue, but it is overcast today.  

Christmas Eve fun

Seth, Brooke, and Sean spent Christmas Eve with us.  Sean loved his boots and

 kept them on all evening.

May May (Meg) gave Sean a huge bear.

And this is our traditional pickle search.  Do you know about the pickle?? 

You hide a pickle which is green, (not real) ours is little which makes it that much harder to find.

And we wait to hide it right before the search begins or there would be searching ahead of time. 

The finder receives an extra gift.

Brian found the pickle! :) 

Glorious snow

We had a white Christmas.  It began in the late morning and snowed all day.

We woke up to a winder wonderland, well for Georgia it was.  

The first thing I saw this morning was a deer crossing our road.  Such a beautiful sight. 

Christmas Eve

Readings

Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 88; Acts 13:16-17, 22-25

"Tonight we are asked to acknowledge that the world we have made is in darkness. We are asked to be attentive, and keep vigil for the light of Christ. The readings are not particularly comforting. Psalm 88, a lament which is also commonly read on Good Friday, is stark in its appraisal: "For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol," the underworld of the dead. The passage from Acts asks us to consider that, just as Israel needed God to lead them out of Egypt, so we need Christ to lead us out of our present slavery to sin. We, and our world, are broken. Even our homes have become places of physical and psychological violence. It is only God, through Jesus Christ, who can make us whole again.

The prophecy of Isaiah allows us to imagine a time when God's promise will be fulfilled, and we will no longer be desolate, or forsaken, but found, and beloved of God. We find a note of hope also in the Gospel of Matthew. In the long list of Jesus' forbears, we find the whole range of humanity: not only God's faithful, but adulterers, murderers, rebels, conspirators, transgressors of all sorts, both the fearful and the bold. And yet God's purpose is not thwarted. In Jesus Christ, God turns even human dysfunction to the good."

O God, who spoke all creation into being:

When you created human flesh, we betrayed you by our disobedience.

When you led us out of slavery in Egypt, we doubted and defied you.

Yet you chose to come among us through your Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered death on our behalf, putting an end to the power of sin and death.

For this great gift of your steadfast love, we give you thanks.

Help us, O Lord, to keep vigil this night.

Help us to watch for the signs of your coming into our midst, not in the splendid palaces of power, but in hearts humbled by need.

Help us to believe that the darkness of cruelty and sin will never overcome the light, and the mercy, of Christ.

Help us to endure, knowing that the evil and injustice of this world cannot prevail against your Word.

We ask this in the name of your Word made flesh, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Please do not leave this most precious of gifts unwrapped this Christmas.  

Thank you for you friendship, support and encouragement. May you all have a joy-filled, love-filled, grace-filled day celebrating the One that makes Christmas, Christmas. 

Take a few minutes and visit. A Holy Experience  you will be glad you did. 

Grace and peace

Fourth Thursday of Advent

Advent Reading

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a; Matthew 1:18-24

"Today our readings ask us to reflect on a mystery: when our lives are most barren, when possibilities are cruelly limited, and despair takes hold, when we feel most keenly the emptiness of life - it is then that God comes close to us...but we are not without hope, for it is because we are so empty, having used the last scrap of our own resources, that God can move in".(Kathleen Norris, God With Us)

Emmanuel

"The promise of Isaiah that we heard at the beginning of Advent is now closer to fruition, if we will only pay attention to the signs: "The wilderness and the dry land's shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and bloom." Now, as the world clamors for more toys and loud festivity, is the time for us to put first things first, and seek silence, if only for a few precious minutes a day. Now is the time when, ever more intently, we are to watch and listen for God." (Kathleen Norris, God With Us)

Emmanuel

God is with us

Father, may we be intentional in setting aside time to be with you.

Fourth Wednesday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 25:1-14; Malachi 3:1-5; Luke 1:57-66

"It helps to ask ourselves the question Jesus so often asks the disciples: "Why are you afraid?" It helps to recall the burning bush God set before Moses, for God's fire did not destroy it. If we truly trust in God, we find more assurance than terror in the thought that God wants to purify us, so that everything false in us turns to ash, and only the good and true remain. To suffer is not a gentle thing, but the end results is pure honey." 

"This child was named by God, and it does not go easy for those who are touched by God's hand. "What, then," the people wondered, "will this child become?" I hear, in that question a restating of Malachi's truth. The Lord we desire may indeed be close at hand, but it will not be easy for us to accept his call. If we continue reading in the Gospel, we find the song that Zechariah sings in praise of God, called the "Benedictus" in church tradition, and commonly recited at Morning Prayer. In this song, we find that it is not merely John the Baptist, but we ourselves who are addressed: "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins."

"This was John's calling, and it is our own, a truth both consoling and terrifying. We are enslaved, by selfishness and addiction and all the wreckage that sin can wreck on the world, but are we willing to risk being freed? Do we dare to enter that dangerous new country, leaving sure comforts behind? Perhaps it is time to surrender, open our hearts, and accept the wonder of Christmas by saying, with Karl Rahner, "We have not choice, God is with us."  (Kathleen Norris, God With Us)

Come Lord, set us free!

Amen.

Let it be.

31 years ago today, my oldest son was born.  31 years, where did all that time go. Brian was a great first child to have. He was happy and content most of the time.  He loved to laugh, he still does.  I remember sitting in I Hop with him when he was about 20 months or so.  We were chatting, yes, chatting, and he was smiling and talking the way that age does, just being his sweet little self.  A young man sitting by us asked me if he was this happy all the time, I said, "yes he is." Brian is our IT guy. He has been able to fix just about anything computer and mechanical related.  When something breaks we give it to Brian to fix.  

Brian, I thank God for the man you are and are becoming. My mother's heart wishes you did not have to endure some of the struggles you have had to over the past years, but I believe that God will use every bit of it for your good. Happy Birthday son, I love you! 

Fourth Tuesday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 113; 1 Samuel 1:19-28; Luke 1:46-56

"The Magnificat reminds us that what we most value, all that gives us status - power, pride, strength, and wealth - can be a barrier to receiving what God has in store for us. If we are full of ourselves, there will be no room for God to enter our hearts at Christmas." (Kathleen Norris, God With Us)

All those things that we spend so much time on, all those things that we work so very hard to achieve, do not bring us lasting fulfillment. They were never meant to.

"Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers.  I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife (or husband) may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evades us.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." ~ C. S. Lewis

Father, help us leave room in our hearts for you. For truly you are what our hearts deepest desire is, even when we are unaware of it. If there is too little room for you because we have filled it with too many other things, show us what needs to go. May we make room for you this Christmas.

Amen

Fourth Monday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 33:1-5, 20-22; Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Luke 1:39-45

"Do not be weighed down by the clutter in your life: lots of little chores to do sometime, in no particular order. If you focus too much on these petty tasks, trying to get them all out of the way, you will discover that they are endless. They can eat up as much time as you devote to them.

Instead of trying to do all your chores at once, choose the ones that need to be done today. Let the rest slip into the background of your mind, so I can be in the forefront of your awareness. Remember that your ultimate goal is living close to Me, being responsive to My initiatives. I can communicate with you most readily when your mind is uncluttered and turned toward Me. Seek My Face continually throughout this day. Let My Presence bring order to your thoughts, infusing Peace into your entire being."  (God Calling, Sarah Young)

"Now, as the world clamors for more toys and loud festivity, is the time for us to put first things first, and seek silence, if only for a few precious minutes a day. Now is the time when, ever more intently, we are to watch and listen for God." (Kathleen Norris, God With Us)

We are only a few days from Christmas.  Many of us still have much to do, too much to do.  I can easily get caught up in the doing and forget why I am doing any of it at all.  A lot of the stuff we think needs to be accomplished no one else would miss.  I am trying to let much go this year.  How about you??

My soul waits for you LORD; you are my help and my shield. For my heart is glad in you, because I trust in your holy name. Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon me, even as I hope in you.

Psalm 33:20-22

Amen

Third Saturday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 72:1-8; Genesis 49:2, 8-10; Matthew 1:1-17

Gifts don't always come wrapped looking like gifts.

A painful and lonely childhood becomes the means to offer comfort, understanding and acceptance to others. 

A trial and hardship becomes the vehicle for much needed growth and change.

Living through an illness or tragedy provides opportunities to reach out and help others who are enduring a similar thing. 

"Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life may also have much sadness and difficulty that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, he would never have been able to find these words." ~ Ranier Maria Rilke

The Messiah.

The Savior was expected.

But not the way he came.

Not the way he lived.

Not the way he died.

Not the way he saves.

Not the way he loves.

Look for unexpected gifts.

Father, give us eyes to see the good gifts you give us. Help us to look back and see your hand and work in our lives. For you are ever working for our good. You take the hard and painful things and use them for our greatest good. Thank you for your love, your grace, your sacrifice, and your continued working in our hearts and lives. May the truth of this cause us to be a more thankful people. Amen

Third Friday of Advent

Advent reading

Psalm 67; Isaiah 56:1-8; John 5:33-36

"For all of recorded history there seem to have been people who didn't quite fit, (by society's view) either because of poverty, or disability, or nationality, or age - those so beaten down by abuse, or struggle, or scorn that they seem paralyzed, without the will to change or be changed. We have come to think of them as outsiders - the hopeless homeless, the alcoholics, the aged, the single mothers, the chronically ill or crippled, whole families dying of famine on parched continents, or decimated by genocide. Have we forgotten that Jesus himself, in his manner of birth, was also a misfit? (Luci Shaw, God With Us)

Jesus asks, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. 

Matthew 11:28, The Message

Jesus continues to invite...Come to Me.

Forgive me, Jesus, for instinctively shunning those who don't quite fit my preconception of propriety or responsibility. As I gather with others at the stable - shepherds and sages - forgive me for being so absorbed in my own concerns that I ignore the deep needs of others. May your loving, restorative Spirit find a home in me. Show me, today, someone whom I can love and embrace in your name.

Amen

(Prayer by Luci Shaw, God With Us)

Third Thursday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 30; Isaiah 54:1-10; Luke 7:24-30

I have spent far too many years doing what I thought was important or doing what I wanted when I wanted.  I was giving God a little part of my heart, afraid to give it to him fully. Thinking that if I did, I would have to do something I did not want to do, or not be able to do or have something I wanted. Or I might lose something I did not want to lose. Now in part that could be true, because what God thinks is my best may not be what I think is best. I don't like to wait. I don't like to be in want.  Does anybody?

But little by little I am giving him more and more of my heart. I would like to say that it is all his. That I hold nothing back, but if I look deep into my heart past all the layers that are me, I know I have not yielded all of it.  

Okay friends, this is last years posting for The Third Thursday of Advent.  As I began to read this I thought, surely I will need to write something else.  Surely I have progressed past this point in my relationship with God.  Surely I can say I am "wholehearted" by now.  I realized that though I may be a little further along on my journey (though there are days where I feel like I have gone right back to the beginning) I am still on a journey.  And I am slow to give up my ways.  But I see little glimpses of loosening.  It takes time to release years of holding onto ones life...at least for me it does.  But God is gracious, and patient, and loves me where I am.  He loves you too...where you are.

For even if the mountains walk away and the hills fall to pieces, My love won't walk away from you, my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart. The God who has compassion on you says so.

Isaiah 54:10

Father help us to believe you, in your love for us.  Help us to trust you wholeheartedly.  Help us to experience your love in a tangible way. You know our hearts better than we know them ourselves.  Help us to see into  the many layers of our hearts, to see what keeps us from offering them fully to you. Father will you plant and grow the desire for you in our hearts today and in the days leading up to Christmas and all the days after.

Immanuel - God with us - always 

Third Wednesday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 85:8-13; Isaiah 45:5-25; Luke 7:19-23

"As well as speaking the universe into being, our Creator is the author of beauty, which we might think unnecessary for practical functioning. But his attention to colorful detail, his infinite variety of plant and bird and beast, are indications of grace, as well as additional confirmation that God is always with us.

The Lord has planted within each of us the aesthetic impulse that allows us to recognize and appreciate that beauty. Created in the image of a Creator, we are created to create. Who among us has not decorated a Christmas tree, or an Easter egg, or a living room? Who among us has not planted a garden, photographed a scenery, whistled, sung, danced? (or painted) I have been listening this afternoon to builders down our street. I hear the antiphon of two sets of hammers ringing their sharp songs as a new house is being erected on an empty lot, and I realize that such construction (rather than destruction) echoes the up-building, creative impulse of God in us. But even builders have to follow the blueprints if the house is to stand firm. God is our Architect, and we are the houses he is building, here in our own Nazareth. The season of Advent reminds us to acknowledge this. 

Not only is God the only authority, the One we must acknowledge, to whom we will all bend the knee, he is the One who opens the door to salvation: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other." John the Baptizer and his disciples wondered of Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" All Jesus had to tell them, quite simply, was that the blind were seeing, the lame walking, the lepers healed, deaf people could hear, the dead were alive again, and the poor encouraged with good news. Who else but the Promised One in our midst, the God With Us, was capable of such miracles? Later on, Peter had a similar answer to a similar question. He said: "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." (Luci Shaw)

Mighty One, as the God who is with us, quench all doubt within us. Reassert yourself to us, in all your creative power and glory. As we remember how your Son gave up that authority to be born and to walk with us on earth, may our love and loyalty rise up to you, strong and certain, to reassure you that we are indeed your creatures. More - we are your sons and daughters. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen

From Luci Shaw, God With Us

Third Tuesday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 34:1-8; Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-13; Matthew 21:28-32

"God as a Lover is passionate about his people. God as a Father cares, as a parent cares about the growth and character of a loved child, about their relationship to him." (Lucy Shaw, God with Us)

Have you tried hard to not do something you do? Have you tried hard to do something you know you should do without success?  We can discipline ourselves, (which is good) we can work hard (which is good) but relying solely on our own strength, even our own willpower and good intentions is not enough.  If the change does not happen at the heart level it is not permanent.  Our actions may change our behavior for a time, but it does not change our hearts.  Only God can change a heart.

Christ came to make that possible.

"God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to His eyes."

2 Samuel 22:28, The Message 

"You did the unthinkable.

You built one bridge to us

Long enough, strong enough

to link the unlinkable."

Lucy Shaw

"Merciful God, in this Advent season we thank you that you can rewrite the script of our lives, moving us from wandering to arrival, from self-hatred to acceptance, from distance to nearness, from loneliness to belonging, from weakness to energy, and all this because of the enfleshment of your dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus, who became one of us and showed us the way. (Luci Shaw, God with Us)

Amen

Third Monday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 25:3-8; Numbers 24:1-17; Matthew 21:23-27

Jesus

Second person of the Trinity

Jesus

God

Jesus

Incarnation

God becoming as small as we are

Why?

For Us

"The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior, he will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love; he will sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals.

Zephaniah 3:17

"He will rejoice over you with gladness. On the day of new beginnings God rejoices over his people, renewing us by his love. A remarkable concept to meditate on is that believers, children of God, can bring delight to the heart of God; that our lives can bring pleasure (as well as pain) to the God who created us, who loves us, and who in his mercy and commitment to us brings us back into right relationship with himself." 

(taken from The Life with God Bible, New Revised Standard Version) 

Why?

To bring us back into relationship with himself.

Henri Nouwen says, "The one who created us is waiting for our response to the love that gave us our being. God not only says, "You are my beloved".  God also asks" "Do you love me?" and offers us countless chances to say "Yes." 

LORD, thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Third Sunday of Advent

Advent Reading

Isaiah 35:1-6; Psalm 145:16, 19; Psalm 130:5

Waiting

"Anticipation lifts the heart. Desire is created to be fulfilled - perhaps not all at once, more likely in slow stages." (Luci Shaw)

Are you waiting for something?

Have you been waiting for a long time?

"It's the waiting that's hard, the in-between of divine promise and its fulfillment, like a leap across a ditch after take-off and before landing.  Most of us find ourselves dangling in this hiatus, which in the interval may seem a waste of time. We drum our fingers on the steering wheel as we wait for the light to change. We wait, gnawing with anxiety, for the telephone call that tells us we got the job. For politicians' promises to be fulfilled. For our health to improve. For our headstrong children to grow up. For Jesus to come and resolve the world's confusion and pain. (Luci Shaw)

"Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminished a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."  

(Romans 8:24-26 The Message)

"With such motivation, we can wait as we sense God is indeed with us, and at work within us...Though the protracted waiting time is often the place of distress, even disillusionment, we are counseled in the book of James to "let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete." Pain, grief, consternation, even despair, need not diminish us. They can augment us by adding to the breadth and depth of our experience, by enriching our spectrum of light and darkness, by keeping us from impulsively jumping into action before the time is ripe, before "the fullness of time." I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope." (Luci Shaw)

"Oh my Lord, keep me from frustration and impatience when I see little evidence of your living and growing in me. Reassure me that waiting time is not wasted time. That your purposes for us all are large and all-embracing enough to hold firm and prevail, no matter the obstacles or distractions. You have told us that "now is the accepted time...now is the day of salvation." But perhaps your "now" is different from ours. You see our lives from the infinite perspective of eternity, of kairos. We want immediate action, change, growth in chronos, in "real time." We want to see our problems being resolved, Now.

Help us to realize, as those who love and believe in you, that we, too, are pregnant with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that day by day we are being enlarged. Augment our hope, widen our imagination, and nourish our anticipation that the astounding fact of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" will turn true in us in your good time. (Luci Shaw, God With Us)

Amen

Second Saturday of Advent

Advent reading

Psalm 80:1-18; Matthew 17:9-13

Repentance - that turn of heart and mind.

Turning from what?

Turning toward what or better yet, who?

Turning from our way of doing life, of striving, of trying to get our needs and desires met.

Of expecting others to fill the void in our hearts.

Of expecting others to meet our needs and desires.

Every other thing, every other person we turn to other than God will eventually let us down.

Turning from my way is better than your way Lord - I know what is best for me.

The truth is we don't really know what is best for us. We may think we are choosing wisely, but we do not have the big picture. 

If you believed there was a person who knew your heart down to it's deepest dark corners, and loved and accepted you as you are.

If you believed there was a person who wanted to restore and heal the broken places.

If you believed there was a person who desired to give you the desires of your heart (some you don't even know you have yet).

If this person knew what you were made for, your purpose for being.

If you believed this person was good, and only wanted your best, always.

Would you choose to turn to this person???

If you do not believe, would you like to believe it to be true??

Are you willing to be open to the possibility of it being true?

He is not holding out on us - He is willing to show us if we just ask.

He does not come where He is not welcome.

What better time to ask these questions, than the time we celebrate his birth.

O Holy One Who Comes, we turn again to you, and we open our hearts, we open our minds, we open our entire beings to your approach. We ask for strength and wisdom that we may now prepare the way. We ask that all may receive you in joy.  Now and forever. 

Amen 

(Prayer, Scott Cairns, God with Us)

Second Friday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 1; Isaiah 48:17-19; Matthew 11:16-19

"If you had listened....." 

When I don't follow God's leading I miss the fullness of what was given. Why do I find it so hard to follow God's ways? Why do I struggle with the same sins over and over? Do you ever ask these questions?

I had a light bulb moment several years ago. Though it changed the way I think and approach my relationship with God, and in doing so it has freed me ever so much, I still struggle in the growing process..

"Willpower, determination and discipline are not enough in Christ-following. The close interconnection of will and desire means that if Christ is to have our will, he must first have my heart. Learning to desire God's will is not something we can accomplish by resolve and willpower.  It occurs only when we live so close to God's heart that the rhythm of our own heartbeat comes to reflect the divine pulse."

"Surrendering to God's will makes little sense if we are not first convinced of the depths of God's love for us. But surrender is far from complete and we have yet to unwrap the gift of our true-self-in-Christ until we are fully convinced of the absolute trustworthiness of God's will. Learning to prefer God's way to ours and discovering our identity and fulfillment in God's kingdom way demands that we know Love, deeply and personally. Only then will it be possible to choose God with the totality of our being, not just our will. The problem is that when we approach the task of choosing anything other than our own self and its immediate gratification, most of us automatically turn to willpower and resolve. Choosing God then becomes more a matter of grim determination than joyful surrender - closer to deciding to cut back on eating enjoyable foods than to follow our heart to the Source of abundant life."  (words in quotations are from David Benner, Desiring God's Will)

Do I ,  really believe God is good? That he has my best at heart? That his way is best? Do you?  Or do I sometimes believe as Eve did that God is holding out on me, keeping something good from me? Do I trust him enough to surrender my way for his and to follow his path? More than I did last year, but there is still a journey ahead of me. As I come to know him more deeply it is easier to trust.  

"I am  God, your God who teaches you how to live right and well.  I show you what to do, where to go.

Isaiah 48:17

Present tense

LORD, you offer to lead us, to show us what to do, where to go. And it is a good way.  As we draw near to you this season may our hearts be changed. May we grow in our trust of you, may we know your leading is good and trustworthy. You who gave everything to make the restoration and healing of our hearts possible, thank you. Thank you for the gift you so freely offer, thank you for totally accepting us where we are, thank you for continuing to draw us, thank you for your leading and guidance. Thank you!

Amen

Second Thursday Advent Reading

Advent Reading

Psalm 145:1-13; Isaiah 41:13-20; Matthew 11:7-15

It is good to humbly realize that we are all of us poor, needy and parched with thirst. Some of us are experiencing the reality of these in a very real physical way.  These are hard times for many of us. But even those who have an abundance of material blessings experience the ache of "Is this all there is?" It might take them longer to realize it because they are numb to the ache.  The ache can be masked for a very long time with things.  

From the outside in, my life looked perfect, but in the quiet of my heart  I knew not all was as it should be.  

If we take a close enough look, we can see that things, people, or whatever we choose to chase the ache away does not do it completely. You see, we are created for a different kind of world and a different kind of life. We are created to have fellowship, a relationship with our creator and with each other. The world is not now as it should be.  As good as it can be, (and it can be really good at times) it is not as good as it was meant to be. There is a scripture that God keeps bringing back to my heart again and again.

"My people are broken - shattered! And they put on band-aids, saying, "it's not so bad, you'll be just fine." But things are not just fine!

Jeremiah 6:24, The Message 

Christ is the life-giving water we so desperately need for the parched and dry deserts of our hearts and souls. The kind of life we are made for.

Father open our eyes and our hearts to our poverty. Help us to stop filling the ache to ease the pain which prevents us from asking the question, " Is this all there is?" Help us to stop and look at what we do to mask the ache.  Help us to turn to you to receive the thirst quenching water that only you can give.

Amen

Second Wednesday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 103:1-10; Isaiah 40:25-31; Matthew 11:28-30

O my soul, bless God.  From head to toe, I'll bless his holy name! O my soul, bless God, don't forget a single blessing! 

Psalm 103:1,2 The Message

In the margin of my Bible I have written, "remember what God has done in my life, do not lose track of my stories."

Sometimes our blessings do not come wrapped looking as such.  I have a friend that has had to move several times in the last few years.  One of the recent moves certainly did not look like a blessing at the time.  Later, she found out that during a heavy rain storm the house flooded.  Had they still been living there they would have lost most of their belongings.

Taking the time to look back at God's faithfulness in our lives, helps us to know in the midst of the hard times, (though things may not look so) we have a God who is on our side, who has our best in mind - always!

Papa, thank you for your faithfulness! Thank you for your loving kindness.  Thank you for the many blessings you have given to us, so many I believe we are not even aware of - yet.  As we make preparations to celebrate Christmas, your birthday, may we take time to look back at your hand in our lives - and give you praise.

Amen

Today Seth, my second born turns 29.

 Seth, Dad and I are so proud of you!  We love seeing the man you have become. A strong man of integrity.   We love seeing the tender and loving way you treat you wife.  We love seeing you interact with your son, I don't think you knew how much you would love your child.  It was the same with us.  It's a different perspective from a parent's view is it not?? We have loved you like that Seth, and though you are grown, with a family of your own we still love you with that strong parent's love...it just looks a little different.

Oh, and yes, we still love seeing that mischievous side of you!!

Second Tuesday of Advent

Advent Reading

Psalm 50:7-15; Amos 5:18-24; Matthew 18:12-14

Sometimes I think we are too busy doing for God, rather than just being with God. We can then loose the intimacy and the joy in the frenzy and the rush of life. God wants our obedience and our good works for sure, but most of all he wants us. He wants our hearts. And as we spend time sitting at his feet, our hearts are changed, we are changed.

Lord, during this busy season of shopping, parties, family gatherings and celebrations, may we make room for you in our schedules and in our hearts. May we take the time to just be with you.

Amen

If you followed along with me during Advent last year these Advent posts will be familiar.  I know for me, I need to be reminded again and again to narrow my focus in all areas of my life.  I also know that I can read the same scripture a second, third, fourth....time and it never touches my heart in quite the same way.  

Grace and peace to you all.

Second Monday of Advent

Advent Reading

Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 5:17-26

Because of God's tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace. 

Luke 1:78-79

Light

Living Water

Restorer 

Healer

Peacemaker

"Forever Fresh and Refreshing Source, Living Water, Bright Garment of Dew, descend now and always in one endless, life-bestowing flow.  Bring to us those waters that forever quench our thirst.  Bring those waters, we pray, to the deserts of our hearts, that from their parched soil, life may spring anew.  And more that this, enable that life-giving flow to pour from ourselves to enliven all around us.  In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit," (Scott Cairns - God With Us)

Amen 

First Saturday of Advent

This Christmas ornament and the previous two are my 

children's first ornaments.  They are 31, 29, and 19.  

Too many of those years Jesus got lost in the busyness, 

the hustle and the bustle. 

Christmas is a birthday we celebrate. Advent is the time

 leading up to Jesus birth, a time to prepare for the most 

amazing gift ever given to us. Don't let the One we 

celebrate get lost in that preparation. 

Advent Reading

Psalm 147: 1-12, Isaiah 30: 19-21, 23-26;  Matthew 9:35; 10: 1, 5-8

"God who is the fullness of Being infiltrated our world of beings in order that we might fully be. Christmas is about the incarnation, and incarnation is God's becoming what he is not, in order that we might become what he is." (Richard John Neuhaus, God with Us)

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

Psalm 147:3

We are all brokenhearted, not just in the sense of a mournful heart, but in a heart that has been wounded, by our sin, by the sins of others, by living in a broken world. A world that is now not as it should be, as it was created to be. God entered our world to make possible the healing, the restoration we so need and long for.

Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee"

Father, open our eyes and hearts to your amazing love, to your amazing grace, that would cause you to go to such great lengths to bring us back to you.  May these truths become more real for us this Christmas.  May we take the time to slow our busy pace and let our restless hearts rest in you, the healer, and restorer of our hearts and souls.  May we not forget why we celebrate CHRISTmas.

Amen

Let it be.

First Friday in Advent

Advent Reading

Isaiah 29: 17-24; Matthew 9: 27-31

I walk through far too many of my days "blind" to the presence of God.  Going about my daily tasks, checking off my list, getting to the next thing that has to be accomplished.  

Where is the Life we have lost in living?

-T. S. Eliot

God offers life. Real life.  

The incarnation is God reaching out across the chasm caused by our sin and starting the relationship all over again. (D. Benner, Surrender to Love)

Incarnation, in-flesh-ment, God in human form in Jesus entering our history: this is what started Christmas. This is what keep Christmas going. (Eugene Peterson)

When I take the time to think on what Jesus actually did for us, for me I can hardly take it all in.

I want to be present for life's moments, even the mundane everyday stuff.

I believe that is possible.  I am not saying that once you "believe" everything will be rosy. In fact, in my experience things can get harder.  When our eyes are opened we see things in our hearts we did not see before. And that can be oh so messy and painful.  But oh to be fully alive.....

I want my eyes wide open to see God in the moments that make up my life.

Open, we pray you, heavenly Father, our eyes to see and our ears to hear your Word, who is Jesus Christ, true God and true man.  As you sent your Spirit upon Mary, so send your Spirit upon us.  Embrace us and hold us close within the Trinity of your love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Thus may we, according to your gift of faith, trust the fulfillment of all your promises.

Amen

Let it be.

(prayer by Richard John Neuhaus, God With Us)