Despite all of these Christmas activities and displays, I don’t feel one bit in the  Christmas mood. Even as I write this, I’m looking at flowers blooming, clear blue skies,  and hummingbirds flitting from branch to branch. There is no snow, no crisp air that can take your breath away, and no slippery street to navigate carefully. The paradigm is all wrong and I’m realizing how much the paradigm affects my appropriation of the season. 

As Advent gets underway, let’s think together about waiting. But first, let me tell you about my recent shopping fiasco. 

First, a confession of sorts: I really try to strike a balance in my daily living between consulting the Lord for things/guidance/etc while using the wisdom, intelligence and drive that he has given me….

First, an anecdote and a statement, both of which arrested my attention in the last week. 

The anecdote: A woman stopped attending a church group because, though she liked the group and its activities, she clashed often with the leader of the group. In the end, she attributed it to differing personalities and left. 

The statement: Recently, a church leader told me (I’m paraphrasing), “This church has never known unity. It’s just that the causes of disunity were different than they are now.” 

We read it on the first evening of a pastors’ retreat three weeks ago. There we were, in the magnificent setting of King’s Fold, having had a full day and very meaningful engagement with one another. To end the day, each day, we went through a reading and meditation exercise called “Compline” (from the Latin word for “complete” in reference to the completion of the waking day) which has a long history in Christian tradition. On that evening, we read these  words: 

All of this is good news to me and I enjoy telling you about it, even if it really isn’t the same for you. These things are a big deal in my life and easily shared. I appreciate you taking the time to read about them, even if you don’t share the same level of delight that I feel. 

It is almost two years since we moved out of our old house and into Tim and Laura’s  basement. Having lived there for more than forty years, there is nothing about that house that  I didn’t work on….

What are you facing this week? Grief? Fear? Doubt? Loss? Your own sinfulness or failure or inadequacy? Uncertainty?

It seemed like a good and logical idea at the time. We were backfilling the foundation of our new house and there were chunks of cured concrete (from pouring those foundations) and various other pieces of refuse from the building site. The simple solution was to throw them into the ground and cover them with the new “fill” that we were trucking in. 

I love living in this neighbourhood where we have built our garden suite! Since we started building two summers ago, I’ve met so many great people. Sharon and I have talked about how we’ve already developed more and better relationships here than we had developed in the 40 years that we lived in our previous home.

I got the word on July 24th of this past summer. I still have 20/20 vision. That was good news but it was also frustrating. If my vision is so good, why do I need reading magnifiers to read over half the time? How is it that I can perceive the smallest movement of an animal in a field while driving by at 100 km/hr and not be able to clearly see the print on a shelf label at Home  Depot?

Parents, grandparents, — here is a truth that I would strongly advise you to take to heart. Kids are always watching you and they are learning about the way life works, what to expect from life, their “rights” with respect to life…..

Human beings are born with the need to hope. We find life incredibly difficult and not worth living if we discover that there is no hope in whatever area that we need it. The writer of  Proverbs understood this

“Where does it say in scripture that God ‘sings’ over his children?” 

Have you found this to be true? You intend on being a loving person but you run up against people or things that seem to suck the life out of you. Next thing you know, you are responding in a less-than-loving way.

Most of us, if we’re a bit self-aware and honest, would admit that we could be ‘more loving.’