Advent Thoughts, continued...

This is such a weird time of year. You know, we all run around trying to find the best gift for the right person while running into all of the other people that are out doing the same thing. We proclaim this time of year a "season of giving." It is a time of love and hope, and peace even, but our actions speak only the opposite. Moreover, there are so many people just like me, writing articles and blogs observing the paradoxical nature of this time of year. Why don't we ever learn?

Maybe we should just embrace the horror of this time of year. It will relentlessly visit every year and test our resolve (a test that most of us fail). Thank God that he is full of kindness and slow to anger. Our actions speak of a frame of mind that just doesn't really take Jesus seriously. Let's just call it what it is. Jesus as a baby is a nice idea. It's a warm feeling at Christmas Eve when the family is singing Christmas carols at the midnight vigil. The power of the incarnation is lost on us. I can't even say that I really understand the implications of the incarnation of God in Christ. I know that it is integral, but it is lost on us for the commercial-ness of what has become Christmas.

People are sad. People are lonely. People die. Yet we run around listening to our cheery music, starbucks in hand, while the world falls away around us. Christ offers hope to all, but every year, we have only a hair of a grasp on the real "reason for the season."

What do we do? I know what I have said, heretofore is somewhat depressing, but there is hope. There is always hope. If we embrace Christ as a family of the redeemed, what a radical change there could be. Embracing the love and hope and peace of the season is the gift that keeps giving. Eating with family and looking in the eyes of those whom you love is a gift that gives beyond our imaginations. Really observe those loved-ones. Faults aside, embrace the love that Christ gives us for others. Let the love of the incarnate God become incarnate in our actions.

And, watch therefore, that you be ready. You never know when Christ will come, but he will. Even so, come resurrected Christ, come in your power and love, and come in the actions of your followers. Amen.

a year in review

I can't sleep, so I thought I would take the time to review my first year of married life.

For those of you who don't know, I got married December 19, 2009. So, this "year in review" is about 6 days short, forgive me, if you will.

What a year it has been! All the things people say about getting married are true. You plan and plan and before you know it, it's over, the honeymoon is over, and you're back in your apartment-back to life as usual. Only, life has been anything but usual. For some reason, I thought it would be easy to love someone that you are ALWAYS around, and I mean ALWAYS. But it has been a learning experience. Learning experiences are not bad at all, but they can be far from easy.

This time last year as we planned to be married, Meredith and I had no idea the riches God had in store for us our first year. Life with each other would be tested and we would need to learn basic survival skills living with each other. As any of you who know either Meredith or me, we aren't always the easiest people to be around. Meredith would have to finish her last semester of her Master's degree, and I my Bachelor's. I auditioned at some schools and got in, but we chose not to move at the time because of finances (we all know this story and I am sick of telling it). We moved to Charlotte which has been somewhat nice because it was our first experience like that, you know, moving. However, Meredith is looking forward to our moving somewhere that we have never lived. As you may know, Meredith grew up in Charlotte, and while she has come to consider Hickory her home, Charlotte is all too familiar. We lost a dear friend this year, our cat Moochie. I lost a little bit of time in my education, but I am still living, so I believe that I have survived the whole ordeal. We have lost a little square footage in our living space, but the ceilings are higher, so it seems a little bigger. We have lost our tempers only a few times in this year of being together, which I think is nothing short of a true blessing. As you may read in my entry two entries ago about my bemoaning my life and all that seems to be going wrong, there were a lot of things about which Meredith and I could have lost our tempers over, but we did not and I am glad that the Holy Spirit kept us cool.

So where are we now? Well, we're in Charlotte, haven't you been reading? Just kidding. We have grown to love each other even more. We have gotten to know a side of each other that has made our lives that much richer. I feel like we didn't get a newly wedded phase of marriage. I am not sure if that is a good thing or bad, but nonetheless, it seems to have been the case. Either way, our daily prayer is that God will strengthen our marriage and make it the happy union that he blessed December 19, 2009. I truly understood the sacramental nature of the marriage ceremony that day. The only thing that can compare to that is the sacramental nature of our continued love and our continued prayer for grace as we continue on this journey.

You might be wondering what the next step for us is... in that entry from a while back, I said that there would be changes. As I alluded a few paragraphs back, Winthrop University was not the institution for me. I hate it that I learned of this after paying a semester's tuition, but I have learned this lesson. I also learned that it's okay to slow down and learn from mistakes. For now, I have applied to other graduate schools for conducting and hope to hear something in January about auditions. I have learned not to plan so far ahead. I do know that my calling is in the Church. I don't know what I will do after the MM... maybe a DMA? maybe an Mdiv? Who knows? I pray daily for God's continued guidance and grace, and he gives it more abundantly than I could ever ask or imagine.

It is the power of Christ that moves within us and shapes us, this same power that raised him from the dead.

The Lord is truly risen!

Advent Thoughts

What is Advent?

You see a lot of articles and posts about Advent around this time of year. Advent is simply "coming." Notice, I said, "simply." There are a lot of other long explanations about what Advent is and the origins as well as the deeply spiritual implications of it all, but might I just share some of my observations...

I might have said this before, but life is a homecoming. We do everything we do so that we may come home. Sure we are equipped for great things, but in the end, we are always coming home. Life is a homeward journey and every experience takes us a step closer to that that continuing city. Think about all of the imagery that involves someone coming to us in Advent. Christ comes to us. We are to "come to the mountain of the Lord." All of these lead to a blissful inheritance about which we know only little.

Let's talk about the mountain of the Lord. I am no biblical scholar, just a wanna-be. However, I do know that in the Old Testament, when the mountain was involved, it was a big deal. Consider the people of Israel and the Sinai Mountain. It is there that people truly learned of God coming to them through the Law. Think of Mount Carmel. Elijah and the people of Israel witnessed God's mighty acts of salvation that day. And now, in the second chapter of Isaiah, we have this prophet saying, "Come to the mountain of the Lord." Something big must be happening again. Only, we know that this is not physical mountain. This is real... this is the place, the habitation of the Lord and his people. He claims us, all of us, for his own and he will put away war, and malice. To borrow from later imagery, he will wipe every tear from our eye, and there will be no more death and separation. Just as God came to the people of Israel in the Law at Mount Sinai, and he came to the people of Israel at Mount Carmel, he comes to us, all of us in Jesus Christ. The mountain of the Lord is a place of unity with God through Christ.

So life is a coming home. Coming home to the Mountain of the Lord. Simple thoughts from a simple person.

"Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen." Prayer for the First Sunday of Advent