Reordering our loves

A new season of transition is well on it's way for us little Whetstones, in Boise, Idaho! This has been a good move, but of course not without some craziness. Then again, when is any transition actually easy with kids (big or little)?

We the Church universal (of which I hope all Jesus followers would come to this declaration despite the family of God's clearly massive imperfections and mistakes) have also entered into a new season - Advent. Slowing down this past week has lead me to some deep reflection on the advent of the Christ who came in a dark time and the one who promises to still come today in our dark times as well. So what might that mean for our lives and loves? 

Light and dark collide daily, similar to the dawning of the sun or the setting at dusk. The older I get, the greater I see a reality of wounds and wonders simultaneously coexisting and affecting all of humanity on a daily basis. Just possibly the great Advent invitation to reenter into the anticipatory story of the God who comes, can help me once again navigate a world filled with both/and, and not either/or? 

I just turned 43 and my daughter just turned the big 10 and I heard myself saying; "I have less time left with her than I did 10 years ago" (sadness) and "I still have some great years ahead with her" (excitement). These both collided in those deep places of my soul.

You see, it's in the tension of the embrace where I feel we travel most as believers. We constantly live within the embrace of light and dark, and joy and sorrow kissing each other at each moment. This world is filled with darkness and a humanity searching for hope, love, joy and peace. The recent United States election and aftermath is evidence of this.

Yet, maybe it's not a birthday you've personally experienced, but possibly a birth of a new precious child while also the death of a loved one near the same time? Or the loss of friendship, work, home, lifestyle because you've moved to a new area where you're now experiencing new friendships, work, home, and lifestyle? I don't know, but I'm sure we can all find ourselves in the both/and of life. 

As a pilgrim believing that Hope, Love, Joy and Peace has come, and still comes today, I find a calling. It's almost as if it's an invitational calling into this embrace by the One who came as humble, loving and peacefully filled with light for our dark world. If we've received such an embrace, would it not transform us where in turn, we would then be agents who embrace the other in a humble, peaceful and loving light? A light that does not blind someone but helps provide a way in the darkness? That is of course, if we believe, that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (John 1:15) and that we are actually called "As God's dear children. . . to be like him, and live in love as Christ loved you, and gave himself up on your behalf. . . . (Ephesians 5:1-2; 1 John 3:16).  

Maybe for us to live flourishingly within this tension of such an embrace, we need to remember and retell the great story of the God who was thrust onward into creation out of love. And in remembering this story, we too are re-membered back into the body - the family of God - so we can then retell this to others and in so doing, rediscover our true story within God's love story of giving. Let's let Advent help us rediscover ourselves as one's who not only receive Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, but give it as well almost like a simple kiss or a warm embrace.

I often think that this embrace we give need not be grand but simple, and in the simple we'll find it simply beautiful too - similar to a birth in a manger and not in a castle. As I reflect on this simplicity, I'm reminded of how practicing the small things in our everyday ordinary lives is how we make known whose we really are and what we truly love. Could it really be that others will know whose disciples we are by how well we love? If so, our loves might truly need some reordering. Just possibly, the desert fathers had some good advice when they shared with a young mentee that; "you could seek to raise the dead, but maybe God would rather have you express your anger appropriately? You could embark on a pilgrimage and accomplish great things for God, but what if God would rather have you control your tongue (or Facebook post)?"

Maybe, just maybe.... We need to practice love in the ordinary, everyday concrete details of our lives? You know those small places: work, home, school, class, driving, in the park, on a hike, with our peers, children, parents, neighbors, enemies... A big challenge this Advent season is to not go big, but have the small be birthed in us again and through it, the small things will be wrapped in great love where, like John said, "I (we) become less, that He may become greater". When this happens, I truly believe that our great Love will be known above all else.

So, I offer this final Advent birth renewal prayer for us all.

Help us to Believe mightily

Hope joyfully

Love unconditionally

Be moved compassionately

And serve always In the power of Your Spirit

Renew our courage and commitment in You

Renew in us O God

A quickening to be kind, forgiving, gracious and swift to love divinely

Enabling us to give feet to justice

Renew in us, YOU

That we may be part of Your renewal in the world

Amen