Faith

Today marks probably my favourite Sunday of Advent – the Sunday of Joy.  I have spent a lot of time thinking and talking about Joy….and finding it!  I love focusing on Joy all year round so I especially love that today’s Advent theme is that of Joy.  { You can read some of my obsession with Joy HERE, HERE, HERE }

You see, Joy is possible to have no matter the circumstances of life.  To me, Joy isn’t the same as happiness.  Joy is deeper, longer lasting and can override some of the more negative emotions that us humans tend to feel.  I am by no means diminishing anyone’s struggle with mental health issues, clinical depression, trauma or grief, to be clear.  I’m speaking more to things like having a bad day or an off week.

Joy is easy for me to find.  It is often the little things that make me smile throughout the day like a dog gleefully running through crunchy leaves, a butterfly flitting around a sweet smelling flower, a snuggle from a sweet girl, or the purr of a cat asleep on my lap.  It might be an elderly couple holding hands, a wee baby’s gummy smile, an eagle soar on the air currents or a scuttling hermit crab on the sand. And spotting these things can make me see the good in the world around me when I’m so turned inward and seeing only the troubles I’m faced with.

We see what we look for.  If all we see is all that is wrong, then we’ll just see more of it.  But if we decide to see the good around us, we notice the way a teenager holds the door open respectfully, or the way the sun filters through the clouds and sheds light across the landscape, the curl of a frosty window or a fellow driver giving you the wave on a busy road when you’re trying to pull out into traffic.  These are all joyful things.  Do you see them?

I have two friends who are spending part of this advent season acknowledging the Joy in their lives and they are encouraging others to do the same.  And I’m 100% cheering them on!!  Suzi Fevens is doing a Moments of Joy Challenge in her Well U Facebook Community and I love it.  { She’s also doing some great Live videos too, from cooking, baking and some crafting, besides all her regular fitness classes! } Michelle McCann is also doing a 42 day countdown to the end of 2020 and finding Joy each day.  It ranges from a humorous mug, to the local deer to her sidekick, Roxy, to sparkly slippers.

As I sat on my comfy new couch scrolling through the socials, I read what Sarah Bessey had to say. “Real joy doesn’t mean that we are sticking our heads in the sand and saying, “it’s fine, we’re fine, everything’s fine” when things are clearly and obviously not fine.”  She goes on to say “Joy is nurtured, not pretending everything is fine, but holding our hope together with our grief, the good news with our sorrow, and naming both as reality.  We practice joy because we are clear-eyed about our realities – all of them.”

Joy – Always.

Warmly,

Lori

This past Sunday was the second Sunday of Advent and the day slipped by without my sitting down to write down some thoughts.  As we scurried through the day, I knew it was the Sunday of Peace and it wasn’t lost on me that it was a full day, but at least it was spent with friends and family.

Peace is always a tricky one.  What does Peace even mean these days? No fighting between the world’s hot spots? A tranquil river flowing from the mountains? A quiet cup of tea with a friend?  I’m not even sure, I think we need to define Peace for ourselves, in our own way.

Sunday’s Peace for me meant holding a sleeping child while she napped at our house, snug and warm under a blanket.  It meant listening to cousins chatter easily back and forth after some big, hard months.  It meant baking cookies in a home filled with love, happiness and laughter.  It was the giggles of a little boy as we chased the soccer ball around a field.  It meant saying yes to things that mean more changes are on the horizon.  And recognizing that through all the uncertainty that it’ll all be ok… maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday we’ll look back on this season of life and see how far we’ve come.

Years and years ago, I remember seeing a comparison of what Peace was.  Both pictures contained a picture of a bird’s nest.  One nest was tucked in a lush, green forest, safely on a sturdy branch, exactly where you’d expect a nest to be.  The other picture was of a nest built on the jagged edge of a bombed building, nothing but destruction in the background.  Both momma birds sat in their nest, keeping their eggs warm.  I feel like that’s the big question this year, maybe always…which is the picture of Peace?  When it’s easy and the life is rolling along smoothly?  Or when our world is filled with turmoil and chaos?

As I sit here and type this, I’m having an inner debate.  Do I have Peace?  Do I know Peace?  Can I find it?  There’s a low burning ‘something’ in my belly that says that I do, I have every right to be anxious and filled with apprehension and yet I’m not.  Well, not all the time at least. 😉   I look out over the past and into future and see that I have been provided for in some many unexpected ways.

I have this thing with watching birds soar in the air. Especially eagles.  If God is going to care for even the birds of the air, of course He’s got me.  And that reassurance is what gives me Peace.  Today, on an early Tuesday morning on my hand-me-down couch, while the girls sleep nearby and a snuggly cat curls up on my lap, a few days past the Advent Sunday of Peace, yeah, I think I have Peace.  Peace that is an unexpected gift in these troubled times of change, of global pandemics, of life, a Peace that passes all understanding.  It is my heart’s cry that you know this Peace, too, on a Sunday of Advent or an ordinary Tuesday morning.

Warmly,

Lori

{ You can read last week’s advent post HERE }

Today marks the first day of the Advent season for 2020.  It sure looks very different than previous years.  Usually you’d find us in the 5th row back from the front, in the pew with Mom and Dad.  Not this year, though, thanks to the pandemic and all that that means.

But I still want to mark the Sundays leading up to Christmas.  Advent is one of my favourite times of the year, I love the build up as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Ironically, the first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Hope.  I find myself circling around the word Hope so much this year.  Not just today.  And not just for the cure for COVID and a vaccine.  Life hasn’t panned out the way I thought it would.  It usually doesn’t, am I right?  But through all that has been happening, I haven’t lost sight of hope.

Sometime in the past, I think as a teen perhaps, I read a scripture that has really stuck with me since then.  It’s a well known verse and yet, it still speaks to me now, perhaps even more than as a teen.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

We are not promised that everything will be easy.  We are not promised that it’ll be smooth sailing.  That things won’t go sideways, that what we had planned and mapped out for ourselves won’t fall apart at the seams.  ‘Cuz guess what?  It will.  It does.  It has.

But I’m okay.  I cling to that Hope that I am promised.  I have that Hope.  Maybe not for tomorrow or the next day, but at some point down the road.  I know things will change and it won’t be such a slog.  I know that the weight I’m carry on my shoulders will ease up and I will breath a little easier and sleep a little better.  That Hope is like that light at the end of the tunnel….one step and one more and then another one.

We’ve started preparing our home and for the gift giving for Christmas 2020.  The house has a warm glow that I know I will hate to pack up in January.  I have bags of goodies stashed to show a little love to some of the special people in my life.  The logistics are being taken care of.  And I’m working on preparing my heart for Christmas, too.  I don’t want to miss a bit of this.  Even if this year we can’t gather the way we usually do, I want to be truly ready for the Miracle of Christmas.

In a world full of despair, I will choose HOPE.

Warmly,

Lori

Good Friday is such a significant part of the story of my faith.   It isn’t fun or lighthearted, it is heavy and dark and real.  Without the events of Good Friday, there would be no Easter morning.

I attended the Tenebrea service at our church last night.  And I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t have gone, except that Pastor asked me to read.  And when he asked and was explaining it to me, I knew it was going to be powerful…I wasn’t wrong.  But that’s exactly what my heart needed, too.

As I listened to the various scriptures about Jesus being the light of the world and watched each reader light their candle, I thought a lot about God’s grace.

There are things we are always telling ourselves – I’m not enough.  I am not worthy.  But I want to tell you today that because of God’s grace, you are enough.  You are worthy.  Without that grace, it would be a continual struggle uphill.  But with that grace, life changes.  It won’t be perfect, there will still be struggles and failures, but God will pick us up, dust us off, squeeze us tight and set us upright on our feet.  Every time.  Every single time.

I remember sitting on a plastic chair around a wooden table in the church basement, Dad as my Sunday school teacher.  He was teaching us about grace, and it never fails to amaze me that I retained what he taught.  Everyone loves a good acronym, right? Well, the acronym Dad taught us was what grace stands for – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.   I’ve never forgotten that.  And oddly enough, all these years later, I finally get what those last letter truly mean.  All along I pictured Jesus doling out what we needed – patience, some extra cash, maybe a new pair of shoes, forgiveness, whatever we needed at the time…but, no, I finally got it.  Christ’s expense – well, that was His death.  He gave all.  For us.  For all people over all times. Only took me roughly 30 years to truly figure it out.

But here’s the thing, He would do it just for the ‘good church-goers’.  The devote Christians.  He would’ve done it just for those that meet at the corner of Duke and Main.  He would’ve done it just for me.  He would’ve died on that cross solely to give me that life eternal.  He would’ve done it just for you.  Did you know that?  God would sacrifice His only Son just for you.  He did it for you.  Do you know that? Do you believe that this day?  I sure do!

I’m so thankful for that grace.  I am not worthy.  I am not enough just on my own.  But, through that amazing grace, I am enough and I am made worthy.

As last night’s Tenebrea service progressed, each reader read some of Jesus’ last words before his death.  The candles we lit during the first part of the service were snuffed out.  One by one. Until one last lonely flame burned brightly.  Then, the final words, ‘It is finished’ and the flame snuffed out.  Darkness.  We were left sitting in this dark part of the Easter story.  Sitting with the weight of what our sin, our mistakes cost.

I’m not one to ruin surprises…well, actually I suck at keeping surprises….but the story gets a little crazy and things change dramatically over the course of the next few days….stay tuned.

But today, this Good Friday, I am thankful for that brutal sacrifice so that I am not required to pay the debt of my sin.  I’m thankful for that grace.  And I’m thankful that I know how the story ends.

Reflectively yours,

Lori