#Advent2016 Day Eight

Lori's Reflections

Pre-dawn glory
inching in.
Secrets invite.
I always taint, 
but this is stronger than I.
This dark sky,
holding promise,
is not the dark of my nightmares;
it is kind.
Sleepy, I let my eyes fall shut again.
And as I have done so many times before,
I waste this invitation
To dance
With the Divine.

Some of the best and worst things happen under cover of darkness. In the wee hours when much of our world is silent and distractions lose their steam, we are free to let our minds, bodies and spirits roam.

The shepherds watched the sky and the magi knew the signs. They studied the heavens and no doubt philosophized about the one who was to come. Still, no amount of knowledge or consensus put them any closer to the Messiah. They could only understand the idea of Jesus without really knowing him until they met him face to face. There is no substitution for proximity.

And for those whose minds and hearts were set against him, nighttime brought fear and paranoia of being dethroned, or of losing power to him. How Herod must have worn a pacing path around his bedroom as he schemed to prevent prophecy’s fulfillment. Nighttime offered him runaway obsession without a single speedbump.

In the silent, holy nights of Advent, we have opportunity to commune with the divine or indulge our fears over politics, war, or our neighbor. We can revel in the promise or stew in the disappointments life has no doubt dealt. We can even go to church or talk about this Messiah, but again…there is no substitution for proximity. We have the chance to meet him directly in the silent nights and enjoy his presence. We can talk to him instead of about him, we can worship instead of discuss theology, and we can pray rather than plan. And with this, he is pleased. And the angels watch in wonder at this kind of love.

#Advent2016 - Day Seven

Lori's Reflections

I would like to trade in some of my old things for new ones this Advent season. Some of my stuff is worn out and tired, and it just doesn’t fit anymore. I’m ridding myself of some things that have been cluttering up my space.

I’d like to trade comparing for gratitude.

I’ll give up my worry for peace and tranquility.  

I’m happy to chuck busy-ness for being still.

I’ll trade in half of the time I spend learning about God just to commune with him.

I’m going to give up telling God who He is and let Him tell me.

And I will unclasp my hands to let loose so many baseless answers I have accumulated along the way to make room for the wonder and mystery of my Redeemer.

I have a feeling that these Christmas trades will be the best presents ever. And because I am part of the bride of Christ, He will gladly give them to me. In fact, He already has if I will only let myself experience them. I am definitely marrying up.

#Advent2016 - Day Six

Lori's Reflections

When I was a child, I made a promise to God. To be honest, I can’t really remember what it was. All I remember is that I broke it. And I was devastated. It took some time before I got up the courage to ask our pastor if God could ever forgive me. Of course the answer was yes, but it took still longer for me to believe it.

Promises are a big deal to me. I am dead serious about them. Still, I have broken many more since then. Sometimes out of negligence or weakness, sometimes because of circumstances outside of my control, and sometimes because I had no business making it in the first place. If you were to make me a promise, I would like to believe you but I wouldn’t stake my life on it. Unfortunately, I know myself and you all too well; we have an exceptional ability to fail ourselves and each other.

It seems so improbable to me that God’s chosen people believed and held to the promise of the coming Messiah for so long. I mean, it took hundreds and hundreds of years and many generations before Jesus showed up, and all they had to go on was God’s word on the matter. Yet they held fast, and they taught their children to expect Him. God’s promises didn’t devolve into folklore or old wives’ tales, but they were held as fact.

Today we find ourselves in a similar limbo. God has promised the return of Jesus and that He will gather us to him forever. And we have been waiting a long time. Still, this is everything to us who follow Christ, and the bedrock of our faith. Why do we still believe after all this time? The Holy Spirit, who can touch the depths in us where mere words or understanding cannot, whispers to our soul and we know it is true. Because God’s promises are bigger than what we can understand a promise to be. God could no more break his word than I could become six feet tall. It’s just impossible.

So I challenge you to take a minute and read all the promises God has made to you in the Bible. They are very personal. And know that they are absolutely set in stone. Tell them to yourself so you better understand who God is and how he feels about you. It will change you, I promise. No really, I do.

Shea's Reflections

"If the tender yearning is gone from the advent hope today there must be a reason for it; and I think I know what it is [...] popular fundamentalist theology has emphasized the utility of the cross rather than the beauty of the One who died on it."
~Tozer

Pragmatism is defined as "an approach that assesses truth or meaning of things in terms of the success of their practical application." Pragmatism is evil. Or least, it is when mis-applied. The saying... "When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail." is helpful here - pragmatism sways us to judge everything, and everyone, in terms of whether they are useful to us. 

As Janet once sang... "What Have You Done For Me Lately!?!" - and I fear we ask the same of Christ in these days of wide-spread ADHDeity. We don't often intently seek the inherent goodness, the innate beauty, the intrinsic truth - we look at squirrels instead. And if something isn't "working" for us, we toss it like slightly stale cookies rather than holding on to hope for which we were called by our Creator and Savior - the Almighty. 


But at the same time, please be aware that we are victims as much as we are offenders here. Nurture and Nature have been stacked against us in this regard and so I will not ask you to rev up your power banks and just "do better", nor will I ask you to pick up your swords and slay the pragmatic beasts as they come at you one by one. I only encourage to you see them for what they are, and then lift your eyes to your Champion - the Pioneer and Perfecter of your faith - the One who will arrive in glory.

#Advent2016 - Day Five

Lori's Reflections

How palatable we like our meals. As a country of affluence, we become bored eating the same thing too often, and our taste buds have grown accustomed to being assaulted with flavor enhancers lest we find it bland. We need our sustenance fast, hot and flavorful. We are a culture of short attention, short patience and short memories. Our entertainment becomes paramount, and our bellies demanding.

Likewise, we have taken the story of Christmas and bedazzled it to our liking. We have replaced silent reverence with Black Friday, traded holy anticipation for decorated merchandise, and created the most selfish of environments out of the most selfless act the universe has known. We post our designer decorated trees, expensive presents and price tags on Face Book with pride.

In the midst of shopping, ordering and accumulating, the question of Christ at Christmastime is uncomfortable for those who don’t know Him. With nativity scenes and songs boldly proclaiming the Messiah, it seems a strange thing how easily the two are divested one from another in our culture. It is easy to distract with eggnog and gift receipts, and summarily dismiss the big question hanging in the air: the validity of the trembling truth of the Son of God.

As followers of Christ, we are no strangers to distraction. To be fair, I have nothing against the perfume or slippers my husband is going to gift me from my wish list. Further, I’m a huge fan of pie and Christmas lights. But to trade the wedding for the reception alone simply leaves you with a hangover and solo future. Don’t squander the sacredness of this time. Cook your Christmas dinner, but don’t forget to dive deep and swim in the mystery that has changed everything.

Shea's Reflections

My advent devotional read today was non-striking. Or perhaps that is really on me. Oh well - no poetry will flow regardless.

Lori asked me what my favorite Christmas time films were, and which we should be sure to add to our video queue this season. Well I'm quite certain she regretted the query immediately because I started singing "Father Christmas!" from my most favoritist Christmasy films of all time - Scrooge!

https://youtu.be/rRWkpIIlVMU

This is not, mind you, the Bill Murray fun-guy Scrooge, nor the George C Scott or Jim Carrey, or even the Patrick Stewart Scrooges... (although they are all quite Scroogey). This is a 1970 musical with Albert Finney - the Scroogeist Scrooge eva... gov'na!

I think the whole thing is actually uploaded to YouTube so you could watch it for free - and you would indeed if you cared to take my advice, which you won't - I can live with that though. I would also suggest you purchase the .99 cent kindle version of A Christmas Carol by Dickens and just read it through this year - it is not that much of a commitment to make honestly.

Chances are good though, that you will spend some time with at least one of the renditions of Scrooge over the next month and I wanted to remind you why the story has been told so many times, in so many ways... because it ventures truth. It is also an early Horror Story... except that the monster and the victim are one and the same.

I dare you (I Triple-Dog-Dare ya! to quote another favorite Christmas film) to invite Dickens ghosts to visit you this season. Take a trip back to Christmas' Past, to times of joy, or sweet sorrows if they be there. Allow the Ghost of Christmas present to shove your nose against a frosty window to see the needs that call out today. And then tremble before bony finger of Christmas future - and awake to find there is still time to begin again!

(btw... Full film is here: https://youtu.be/y7Pk1jcaLDI)

#Advent2019 - Day Four

Lori's Reflections

What a big job for a baby…

To be the promise to every person the earth has touched.

To be a big enough container to hold the full love of God.

To be the only bridge that can span the chasm between God and his creation.

A baby was such an unexpected vehicle for all of that grace.

Still, he was right on time in just the right way and just the right size to break the barrier between us and

God. Once broken, the power that brought him to the earth in this most fragile of ways is big enough to

keep the barrier destroyed for good.

This baby was strong enough to save us and vulnerable enough to weep with us, for us, about us.

Because babies don’t stay babies, because God cannot be defeated, and because Love always wins.

Shea's Reflections

Lost but not abandoned
so says the coin in the corner
so says the sheep far afield
so says the son eating pig slop

Lost... but a Seeker has come
from the skies to seek and to save
to restore, to heal, and to gather together
as a hen gathers her chicks under wing

Behold! There comes a knocking, a rattlin' at our door.
Behold! There is a staff raised high, calling to our eyes.
Behold! There is a name, which when spoken, displays power.
Behold! A mere garments edge, which when grasped, heals.

Lost... Broken... Bitten... Bleeding...
But not abandoned

#Advent2016 Day Three

Shea's Reflections

Sit still for a moment and give your full attention to the moment.

Expand your chest and abdomen and realize the profound result - a breath.
Now imagine yourself suddenly transported, naked into space - expand your chest now mortal
- where did your breath go?
Somewhere within the frame of countable seconds, you will die.
Realize this as a result - you live with drastic need.

You might assume you somewhere somehow did something to deserve the need be met
You might also assume you would do just fine providing for yourself
You could conclude you are just as much an accident as the air around you - and never give it a second thought
but this Christmas season has arrived to provoke you to think about the needs you have and the gifts you receive

We are reminded of Love and it's work - “He did good to you and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness"
We are reminded that it is only by grace that we live and move and have our being
We are confronted with needs beyond our physical body
and we will sing "Jehovah Jireh!"
The Lord God Provides

Lori's Reflections

Daniel 6:27

“…he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth…”

Beyond the border of my power,

Past the end of my plans,

Above my eyes and below my fear.

You are there.

You, with your Breath

                Waving wonders with your sweeping hands.

Revealing signs with your words, speaking being into emptiness.

Not bound by time and space and gravity, your work goes on in other realms.

Sometimes I think I can sense the great movements in the heavens-

                Sometimes I am dumbed down by my physicality.

Always – you are moving.

Lori's Advent Reflections - Day Two

How jaded I become to the supernatural. What a ridiculous thing it is to tell the story of God and man with the same voice and breath I use to ask my husband what he wants for dinner. Oh, we are a species of frail spiritual constitution.

Yet if my mind could see a photograph of the exchange between father and son on the Mount of Olives, I would be able to see in frozen time the captured anguish. My eyes would sense the disturbance in the creation around him as the full realization fell on him of the coming days. Spiritual beings would be seen comforting him, mourning with him.

And we humans didn’t see any of this coming. This wasn’t at all how we ordered things to go, and we became shaken from our sleepy story.
Still now, I am unable to comprehend and absorb the weight of this story, from fragile beginnings to triumphant end, so I sometimes tell it with the inflection and reverence of a bored sixth grader. But when I can stop and visualize a photograph of Christ and I exchanging love, looks, intentions... I am moved to awe. I can see the bright beauty of both gift and giver in an extreme contrast. And when I picture a photograph of the people long ago waiting and watching for his coming, I wonder if they told their children the promise with beautiful anticipation around the fire at night, or hurriedly as they were cooking dinner or tending sheep. Thank God his faithfulness is not dependent on us.