Our readings for the Fourth Sunday in Advent are:
- Isaiah 7: 10-14
- Psalms 24: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6
- Romans 1: 1-7
- Matthew 1: 18-24
- God, are you there?
- Trusting in God can be a tricky matter. There is always the question whether what we think is God's will really is God's will. Particularly when the stakes are high. Think of a time when you felt the call of God to go outside of your comfort zone.
- How did you tell whether or not this was God's leading?
- How did you find the courage to follow that leading?
- How did that turn out?
- Do you still think that was God's voice?
- Standing in a holy place
- Holy places are all around us. Certainly there are shrines aplenty, but I believe that any place where love is found soon becomes holy, the love practiced there seeps into the fabric of that place, making it a doorway to the sacred.
- Where is a place that you find holy, where you go to find God?
- How did that place become holy for you?
- Is it possible to make your home, your place of work at all holy?
- What could you do to bring that about today?
- Set apart, but for what?
- It's a sacrilege to use something for anything other than it's divine purpose. In a small way, washing your car with the priest's alb would be a sacrilege. In a similar way, using our lives for anything other than God's purpose for us is a sacrilege.
- What is God's purpose in your life right now?
- How did you find that purpose?
- Do you think that it's ever going to change?
- Where would you like for your life to go next?
- Do you think God cares what you want (careful, this is a trick question)?
- What makes a family holy
- Joseph and Mary were doubtless both trained from their youth up in what made for good parenting, what the responsibilities they were going to shoulder as adults, and how that would look. Only some of the training prepared them for what lay ahead.
- All of us are in a family in some role or another, many of us play several roles. I am still son to my mother (I get reminders from time to time) and still father to my children (fortunately, I don't seem to need to remind them), husband to my wife. Which of your family roles brings you the most joy?
- Was that joy always there, or did you have to grow into that?
- How has being in your family changed you through the years?
- How would you like for it to change you?
- Preparation for Reconciliation
- Where might God be calling me out of my comfort zone?
- Where can I bring some holiness today?
-
Am I at all sacrilegious in how I spend my time, talent, and treasure?
- Where is God inviting me closer to Him with, in, and through the crazy messy gaggle of folks that I call family?
Casting out Fear
Fear of failing, of being a failure, of being seen as a failure.
Fear of going to my grave without a commendable list of accomplishments.
Fear of not seeing where God has worked through me until I am gone.
Fear of being paralyzed by my own fears, sidelining myself,
Until the last play is over, and the lights go out on the stadium of my life.
I used to strive to slay my fears.
Wrestle with them, beat them into submission.
Banish them for good, score a solid triumph.
Then I realized that they were a lot more resilient than I was,
For they kept coming back like stray dogs that I had once fed.
Just as strong as ever.
I tried giving them up to God.
I wasn't sure quite how to do that,
My prayer was one of "here, I don't need this, you take it"
And I was disappointed in God that he didn't take me up on my offer.
And I began to fear failing at dealing with my fears.
Getting on some fear treadmill.
Then I learned, slowly,
That my fears were going to be my companions for good,
And I needed to let them be my companions for good, and not evil.
Acknowledge them, pray about them,
Listen carefully to the various voices in my life,
And find that one still small voice that called forth the best in me.
It's not easy, or quick.
I have need of a lot more humility and trust.
But somehow, I feel that the process, messy though it is,
Is a form of devotion in its own right.
And I look forward to hearing less and less from my fears,
As all of those voices within learn what's truly important.
Shalom!
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