preparing
I don't know where time has gone this year. It's been quick to come to Christmas and with me being sick after Thanksgiving with bronchitis I was feeling behind so I took Thursday and Friday off of work this week in hopes of finishing up decorating, baking and shopping. All that to say that on Wednesday night I got the stomach flu (that i wouldn't wish on ANYONE) and it is just now subsiding (it's Saturday afternoon). If you have kids-- I pray they don't get this. I was vomiting every 20-30 min and my body aches as a result-- I can't imagine a child going through this. So after getting anti nausea meds from the Dr yesterday (who seemed to know this bug all too well) I am feeling better.
But apart from the hustle and bustle I don't feel like I have prepared my heart. I came across these thoughts on Advent on another blog.
Isaiah 64:1-9
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!
Advent becomes a time when our longing merges with the longing of God. It’s a time of watching in anticipation for the coming of God’s promised reign. It’s a time of waiting for God to set things right.
Walter Brueggemann has written that Advent is a community of hurt. Advent “is the voice of those who know profound grief, who articulate it and do not cover it over. ... And because the hurt is expressed to the One whose rule is not in doubt, this community of hurt is profoundly a community of hope.”
The people who celebrate Advent are those who are not afraid to name the hurt that engulfs them. Advent is for those who refuse to numb themselves with placid thoughts of a better day. It is for those for whom all hell is breaking loose and who have turned their life in every direction imaginable, looking for some help to come, only to find themselves shouting with Isaiah: “God, you do something about this! Tear open the heavens and come down here and do something. God, just do something to end the hurt.”
“Do something, God, to bring peace.”
“Do something, God, to heal my family’s brokenness.”
“God, do something to let me keep my job.”
“Do something to take away the anger that is consuming me.”
“Do something to break the hold grief has on me.”
Whenever we discover that the world isn’t what we or God imagined it would be, when we recognize the hurt, we call out to God in hope that God will do something to set things right.
(John P. Leggett)
Sadly this person lost her husband suddenly at the far too young age of 32 this fall. So her pain is much different than what I think when I read this. I think that's the amazing thing about God. His hope meets us right were we are! But isn't it true that we need hope no matter what our life is-- what our pain is? I think that's what it is to await Christ in Advent. It's not about having the decorations just so or the fudge just right-- it's about your heart. It's about community being real- living in that moment. Living in the joy and sorry and the moments of anticipation and the unknown. There are lots of unknowns in our world right now. But the good new is that as we celebrate the birth of Christ we celebrate the comfort and hope that comes with His grace and peace.
I pray that the grace and peace of Christ's coming- wipes away all fear, anxiety, and hustle and bustle and you allow yourself and your family to sit in that moments of hope that He brings.
But apart from the hustle and bustle I don't feel like I have prepared my heart. I came across these thoughts on Advent on another blog.
Isaiah 64:1-9
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!
Advent becomes a time when our longing merges with the longing of God. It’s a time of watching in anticipation for the coming of God’s promised reign. It’s a time of waiting for God to set things right.
Walter Brueggemann has written that Advent is a community of hurt. Advent “is the voice of those who know profound grief, who articulate it and do not cover it over. ... And because the hurt is expressed to the One whose rule is not in doubt, this community of hurt is profoundly a community of hope.”
The people who celebrate Advent are those who are not afraid to name the hurt that engulfs them. Advent is for those who refuse to numb themselves with placid thoughts of a better day. It is for those for whom all hell is breaking loose and who have turned their life in every direction imaginable, looking for some help to come, only to find themselves shouting with Isaiah: “God, you do something about this! Tear open the heavens and come down here and do something. God, just do something to end the hurt.”
“Do something, God, to bring peace.”
“Do something, God, to heal my family’s brokenness.”
“God, do something to let me keep my job.”
“Do something to take away the anger that is consuming me.”
“Do something to break the hold grief has on me.”
Whenever we discover that the world isn’t what we or God imagined it would be, when we recognize the hurt, we call out to God in hope that God will do something to set things right.
(John P. Leggett)
Sadly this person lost her husband suddenly at the far too young age of 32 this fall. So her pain is much different than what I think when I read this. I think that's the amazing thing about God. His hope meets us right were we are! But isn't it true that we need hope no matter what our life is-- what our pain is? I think that's what it is to await Christ in Advent. It's not about having the decorations just so or the fudge just right-- it's about your heart. It's about community being real- living in that moment. Living in the joy and sorry and the moments of anticipation and the unknown. There are lots of unknowns in our world right now. But the good new is that as we celebrate the birth of Christ we celebrate the comfort and hope that comes with His grace and peace.
I pray that the grace and peace of Christ's coming- wipes away all fear, anxiety, and hustle and bustle and you allow yourself and your family to sit in that moments of hope that He brings.
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