itsawonderfilledlife

Week 1
The People’s Need

Dying ≠ Christmas

Death ≠ Christmas

Grief ≠ Christmas

Wanna pour cold water on the Christmas season? Add dying, death and grief. For this triad can steal the joy of this festive season. Wanna take our eyes off the prize, the culmination of the advent season? Walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Some of us are lonely this season, grieving a loved one whose absence fills us with longing. We are struggling to long for the finale of the advent season, because we are longing for them … the one(s) we miss and love.

Some of us are planning a funeral … while the rest of the world are hanging boughs of holly.

And for some, there is the shadow of death seems to shadowing this season, each advent door opening to one more day of life and breath … but so aware that there might not be an open door tomorrow.

How do we celebrate, anticipate the birth of our Savior as we walk through this valley?

“… the tension between believing in the goodness that is to come

and naming the grief and heartache of our present moment”

Cole Arthur Riley

Ah … that tension.

It is the tension of being fully human while looking ahead to redemption. Looking ahead to (as Revelation 21:4 tells us),

death shall be no more, 
neither shall there be mourning, 
nor crying, 
nor pain anymore, 
for the former things have passed away

This is what we are counting down to, what we are anticipating. While we wait (in the hospital room, the funeral home, the graveside) he will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Revelation 21:4a), for he is near to the broken-hearted (Psalm 34:18). We are not left alone in this dark valley, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4).

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Week 1
The People’s Need

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.” Jonah 2:8

Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Ecclesiastes 7:10

“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” Philippians 3:13

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know"

White Christmas … that is my personal ideal of the season. The snow bring light to an otherwise dark night, dark season. I expect that my ideal was formed in my childhood, growing up on Canada’s East Coast, where snow and Christmas were synonymous.

Ah … the ideals we carry in our minds! The past can be so easily idealized in our minds.

“Back in my day …”

“In the good ol’ days …”

“When I was a kid …”

Remembering the past, the events of the past, can be good for our hearts and souls, for the past has brought us to where we are currently. Yet, we cannot return to a previous time. And, if we look at the past clearly, it wasn’t all delight. At Christmas especially, we can allow our minds to visit Christmas’ past and choose to stay there indefinitely.

Christmas includes the past, present and future. It is the fulfillment of past promises, we get to walk through today with the God who loves us and, in this advent season, we get to anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who will come again in time to come.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Hebrews 13:8

God,

I need to honest with you … I want my old world back. I want to live in my memories of snow, and family all together, and carols by the tree, and littles snuggling in close, and the warmth of holding a loved one’s hand, and … simpler times.

Yet, I live in the now, the present … remind me to unwrap it. Remind me to cherish it, the present, the now. For today is the gift you have given … yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not promised.

Prepare me, prepare my heart for whatever world is coming. Prepare me, my heart and soul, for the coming of your Son … the best gift.

For you do not change … you remain.

Rest is the defiant act
of creating space
In my own life
for my own soul.
While I cannot stop
the passage of time,
I can pause
my passage through time
so that I can see
yesterday more clearly
and choose tomorrow
more willingly.
-Justin McRoberts

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Week 1
The People’s Need

From deep in the realm of the dead  I called for help Jonah 2:2b

Two are better than one Ecclesiastes 4:9

I am lonely and afflicted Psalm 25:16

Christmas is the season of smiling faces, of deep belly laughter, of good cheer and joy … and loneliness.

Someone said to me recently that Christmas is so much about family that it makes them feel lonely. They are not alone is that feeling.

There is a song that came out in the 1980’s with the following words,

"Sad songs say so much. 
If someone else is suffering enough 
to write them down 
When every single word makes sense  
it's easier to have those songs around." 

Ah … to know we are not alone!

This is our human cry. Our human need.

This is why we need Christmas! Why we need a Savior.

We need the words of Jesus himself:

 “and be sure of this—
that I am with you always,
even to the end of the world.”

Matthew 28:20

There is also a person of the Christmas story who knew what it was to be alone. Mary, a single teen, pregnant … in a society, a time a place, when women were equated to dogs on a good day. She received the news of her pregnancy from an angelic host and then kept the news to herself, until she was with her cousin Elizabeth … the kindred spirit who knew of Mary’s condition, for her own womb was shook with the presence of she and her unborn one. Though Mary may not have been physically alone, for she had family, her part in this advent story threaded through her entire life, leaving her with an experiential loneliness for much of the rest of her life.

Father God,

Some of us feel so lonely at this Christmas season. We long for the human connection that we see and hear in the music, the movies and even in our places of worship. Yet, we go to bed alone and wake up the same.

Some who are lonely are even surrounded by other humans, but connections have failed. Loneliness can also be felt when we walk through this season alongside another (others).

And Lord, if we are not one of those who walks through advent longing for connection, please open our eyes and hearts to those may be struggling. When you bring them to mind, convict us to raise their names to you, to contact them, to do something for them … with them.

Your Son, whose Earthly arrival we anticipate … he knew loneliness. He knew what it is to be alone with his thoughts, with his hurt. He knew what it was to be left alone by the one who sent him as he hung on a cross. God … your Son did this so that we could know his presence, your presence.

May you be real to us this season. May we bring the real you to others.

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Do you cry?

Does the heaviness of life, of the dark, weigh on your heart and soul?

Have you ever cried out to God?

The Christmas Carol, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, says :

“Israel that mourns in lonely exile here”

And, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, starts with these words,

God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay

Dismay? What does dismay have to do with the Christmas season?

Well, actually,

Tears
Sorrow
Dismay

These are part of the reason why Jesus came to be with us … a very big part. The coming of the Messiah was planned when sin entered our world, entered into us. When sin entered the world, so did tears, sorrow, dismay. Jesus came to save us from our sins, but he also came to be the embodiment of God … he is the full package and his coming paved the way for us to never, ever be alone in our tears, our sorrow, our dismay.

 O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.

God,

We … I … need you.

As I bow my head, my heart is heavy, my eyes are brimming with tears, my mind struggles to focus on being in your presence. God … Father, hear the cries of my heart.

You, and only you can hear what is unspoken. I know that you are sovereign, that you are in control of everything. I give you my heartaches, my struggles, my sorrows …

and I ask that you don’t let me take them back.

Thank you that advent reminds us of how you send hope into our sadness.

I am counting the days …

Day 1.

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And so, Christmas begins … in the dark, looking for the light.

This is it … Advent Eve. The day before the first door is opened, as we countdown to Christmas (and get our daily chocolate (or socks, or tea, or whiskey …) as a reward for waiting another day.

Advent … waiting.

The word advent means to come, but the season is about the awaiting of the coming of the Messiah, so that God could be with us … or, more specifically, so that we could be with God.

God, in the flesh.

The highly anticipated King of the Jews,

born in a manger … a feed trough.

Jesus … the bread of human life.

The redeemer of God’s chosen people,

who came to offer eternity to … all.

So that we are all his chosen people.

This is a season of celebration, anticipation and hope,

but …

it is still dark …

and the closer we get to Christmas,

the darker it gets.

This is the dichotomy of advent …

that as the world gets darker,

the light shines brighter,

for,

“Light shines brightest in the deepest dark!”

John Butcher

For the days leading up to Christmas day, itsawonderfilledlife will be like an advent calendar. It will be a place that will take us from dark to light, from black to bright … maybe even from despair (for some are feeling despair this day, these days) to hope.

This is for anyone … for the busy (they will be short) and the bored, for the discouraged and the joy-filled, the lonely, the hope-deprived, the God-lover and the God-doubter, even for the one who has been deconstructing their faith … for a daily walk toward the birth of Jesus may be just the reminder of what faith (without the extras) really means.

And so, Christmas begins … in the dark, looking for the light.

* If you want to ensure you get these daily doors opening to the coming of our … of your Savior, hit the follow button (below the ‘Blogs I Follow’ section on the right) and they will be delivered to your inbox each day (6am PST).

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Black Friday …

Today, is the day when the Christmas season begins … in our pocketbooks, our waistlines, our social calendars, home decor, music and movies.

It begins in the dark. In an inky blackness similar to the one that preceded the first Christmas.

As the Christmas season has been creeping closer, as the daylight in my northern hemisphere home, my thoughts have been on darkness.

As a solar-powered human (aren’t we all?), I feel each minute of decreasing light as the sun moves toward the southern hemisphere and away from us in the north. I feel it in my energy levels, in motivation, in my soul. On the weekend that the clocks were pushed back, a few weeks ago, I heard myself say … four more months and then the light will be seen to be increasing in our lives again … four more months.

It is as though I was repeating the line from a favorite children’s story,

I think I can …

Then I remembered words from Jonah. His words of telling of his salvation from a deep, dark place. From the belly of a whale, he cried his sorrow to God …

and God heard his cries in the dark.

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths,
    into the very heart of the seas,
    and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
    swept over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished
    from your sight;
yet I will look again
    toward your holy temple.’
The engulfing waters threatened me,
    the deep surrounded me;
    seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
    the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
    brought my life up from the pit.

“When my life was ebbing away,
    I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
    to your holy temple.

“Those who cling to worthless idols
    turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
    will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

And so, Christmas begins … in the dark, looking for the light.

Stay tuned.

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