The beginning of the Advent Season / And other ramblings

Yesterday marked the first Sunday of Advent and the start of the Christmas season. The Advent season is a time of preparation as we focus on the first coming of Christ. 

Preparing for Christmas - taken from 'A Book of Simple Prayers'

O blessed Lord Jesus, give us thankful hearts for thee, our choicest gift, our dearest friend.

Let not our souls be busy inns that have no room for thee and thine, but quiet homes of prayer and praise where thou mayst find fit company; where the needful cares of life are wisely ordered and put away, and wide sweet spaces kept for thee; where holy thoughts pass up and down, and fervent longings watch and wait thy coming.

So when thou comest again, O blessed One, mayst thou find all things ready, and thy servants waiting for no new master, but for one long loved and known.

Even so come, Lord Jesus

This week we attended the 8:30 am services at Benson Baptist.  It was the first Sunday of Advent, and as is tradition the 'Hope' Candle was lit.  We all have 'hope' for this world, hope that things will improve, hope that eventually mankind will work out it's differences and we'll all live in peace and love with one another.  

But my 'hope' is that more and more will begin to see the 'hope' of Christ.  The 'hope' that he had that we could all learn to live by his example of grace, love, compassion and sacrifice.  These are not things that we need to act out in great and grand gestures such as spending a day serving food at a local shelter, or traveling to Africa to be a missionary; not really... now do not misunderstand me all these are great and wonderful things and we desperately need to do these things.  BUT... where we truly are called as faithful followers of Jesus is to practice these virtues; grace, love, compassion and sacrifice in our day to day and everyday interactions with other people.

As Christians we all need to strive to live our daily lives as a reflection of God.  Even in our interactions with non-Christian and non-religious individuals.  We need to practice Christ's traits of grace, love, compassion and sacrifice in all of our interactions.  In our dealings with friends, colleagues, strangers, and even family.  

Perhaps the greatest irony of life is that the place where we have such difficulty in practicing grace and compassion on the smallest levels is with our own families.  We mistreat our loved ones much more than any stranger we meet.  Anger and frustration rear it's ugly head nearly daily in all too many Christian homes.  I wish I could say that these things never visit my own home but that just isn't so.  In fact I find that as my loving wife and I age there are times when we are frustrated with one another.  This is a result of my ongoing problem with not communicating my wishes and desires and this mixed with my wife's slow and steady loss of hearing can make for times of great miscommunication and misunderstanding.  

It's in these moments of frustration that our greatest opportunities to practice grace and it's companion forgiveness exist.  We need to remember that our family members are just as flawed and imperfect of human beings as we are and that we need to forgive them for their shortcomings.  Shortcomings that all to often are the result of our own failing to listen or communicate adequately.  And let's be honest all to often the reason we are so upset is that we realize deep within that it was our own doing, and there is no one individual that is harder to forgive than one's own self.  Practice grace, love, compassion and sacrifice not only to those around you but with yourself as well.

Blessed are those that forgive, for they exhibit the greatest attribute of God.  For many of us love but all too few forgive....

Other Ramblings:

Thanksgiving week was a hectic week for our family.  On the Monday before Thanksgiving Gail's mother Mary Alice, had another in a now long line of strokes.  They took her by ambulance to the hospital and she honestly only got out yesterday morning.  She is doing well and seems to be back to what has become 'normal' for her.  She is home however and her episode did not require her to spend time in a nursing home as has been the case with previous strokes.

As a result of all this our Thanksgiving was just the four of us this year.  Creath came home from Sioux Falls on Wednesday and went back on Friday.  Madeline was off from Tuesday until today.  I drove her back to Lincoln late last night.  It made for a fairly quiet Thanksgiving Day but all things considered we felt a great many things to be thankful for.

I shared with my family the following prayer as grace before the meal:

Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies, that make our lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth, and our friendly helpers in this place. Let peace abound in our small company. Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Offenders, give us the grace to accept and to forgive offenders. Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another. As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind, as children to their sire, we beseech of thee this help and mercy for Christ's sake.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

It is a wonderful little prayer and one that for some reason speaks to my soul.

Additional Ramblings:

One of the ironies of the title of this blog is that it really is not appropriate for me to discuss in any detail the process of actually searching for a pulpit.  So much of the 'Path' remains hidden to those that read this blog.  It will only be once the path has reached it's destination that I will in retrospect be able to share any details.

But having said that I do have resumes out and I have been trying to prayerfully locate just where God is calling me to go.  My focus has been on locating a congregation to serve that would allow us to remain in the Omaha area so that we could continue to run the Gallery here in Omaha.  However, I was asked if I would consider a position that would literally take me a third of a world away from Omaha, in a culture and climate that would be virtually foreign to us.  Travel there would be limited and expensive so coming back to the Midwest to visit family would be an extremely rare occurrence.  The great difficulty in physically relocating along with the liquidation of all our business and personal assets would demand in my mind that I intend to make a commitment to this ministry of a decade or more.  Which of course causes a problem with future grandchildren.  Those that know me well know that I am nuts about children, and I am at that stage in life where I am waiting for my children to fall in love, get married and bless this world with little people.  Though neither of our children are married at this time, it is likely just a matter of time before they meet the right person and fall in love.  The thought of being so very, very far away when my grandchildren might be born is one the sits like lead in my very heart.  I am not at all sure I could do that...

There is as well my concern that Gail's health would not deal well with the rather severe climate which would greet us on our arrival.  I have resolved however to be prayerful over this potential opportunity and have asked to be kept informed as to the progress.  A friend of ours may likely travel there to be the interim minister and they have stated that they would fill me in on more details at that time.

I would be very thankful for any and all prayers for guidance and direction pertaining to this matter.

May this beautiful day find you all well, safe and loved.

In the Light of God's Love and Grace,
Roy