My friend bob carlton sent me an advent devotion by one of my favorite authors, joyce rupp.
She helped me remember that it often takes the entire month of December to actually catch the spirit of the season.
That we all really need advent…we really need the entire month to remember and actually get to the joy of the coming of jesus to our world.
Getting home from charlotte, I was tired and needed the enitre week to recover from the fall speaking tour…
Doing experiential worship doesn’t allow me to just waltz in with a laptop and an outline and do my thing…
It’s a series of packing and unpacking and a two hour workshop really involves a total of 7 hours of set up and tear down…and packaging up again...
That's really true about life…
Life really is a process of setting up and tearing down
Getting ready and cleaning up after the fact
Creating something beautiful that takes time
Cleaning up and packing up takes time
Preparation
Prayer
Follow up
Clean up
Repacking
Process
God Is definitely in the process...
What to keep?
What to throw away?
What did I learn in the middle?
What can we do better next time?
What worked?
What didn’t ?
What fell flat?
Life with God is all about
Seeing something a new way
Using what we have in front of us
Being flexible and adaptable
Making something sacred that really isn’t…
Seeing something with new eyes because of the hands who created it
Clay, crayons, markers, messages wriiten in pen...
Changing our minds
Changing our moods
Going with the flow
Carrying on When the technology doesn’t work
Asking for help
Receiving help from strangers
Laughing at myself
Whining and then repenting
Starting again
So what is God tearing down in my life right now?
What is he setting up?
What is he getting ready to do?
What is he unpacking?
What is he repacking and repackaging ?
What is he throwing out?
What may take hours that I think should take minutes?
What is jesus doing that I cannot see without the help of others?
Am I able to rest and trust when it all doesn’t go my way?
Am I willing to see things in a new way with new eyes and with many senses?
To learn from others, from strangers, from friends who take the time to share their gifts and talents with me?
What can I learn from a room that takes a trail of “fish crumbs” to find, down a service hallway….in the deep recesses of a convention center?
What is jesus doing in the dark hallways of my heart?
Am I willing to follow his path
To search for the right place
To take the extra time
And to make an extra effort?
Or do I just want to go it the easy way
The quick fix
The way it’s always been
The flat and boring, two dimensional way
Rather than the multicolored, multi-sensory, way
lit with twinkle lights and candles and
With the sound track of his love for me playing softly in my ear
jesus i need you to repackage my heart this christmas
jesus i need you to help me unpack the NOs in my life
and
to help me say YES!
help me to say yes to the divine
jesus enable me to say YES when you invite me to take on things that feel impossible
to say YES when i don't know the way
to say YES when others say maybe
to say YES when it feels hard, when i'm tired, when i am much afraid.
thank you for saying YES for me ...even when i cannot say yes back.
amen.
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