Maybe then I will believe in your God...

The site was an encamped caravan. The desert wanderer and a much beleaguered rabbi who had made the mistake of engaging this bedouin tramp in a religious discussion.

"How can you not believe in God?" exclaimed the Rabbi. "Look at all there is around you."

"I did not say I do not believe in God, but only that there is no evidence of him. I say to you, if he does exist, he does not work hard at letting us know it. There is even less evidence that he cares for us."

"But the Scripture says...," sputtered the rabbi.

"The Scripture! Forget what is written. If there is a God, then let him come down here where we are. Let him live in this filthy place where we live. Let him smell the stink, let him feel the poverty, let him know pain, let him see the hunger...let him feel the hunger. Let him know what it is to eke out an existence in the wretched poverty. Let him see a friend die, feel the agony of loss, the unfairness of death. Let him know what it is to watch a little child die and see him taken from his mother's arms for burial. Let him see our diseases, the twisted feet, the sockets of blind eyes. Let this God of yours be hated, jeered, cheated, robbed! Let him lose everything he owns at the hands of the wicked. Let him be dragged before a court of law, as was I. Let him discover firsthand how unjust justice really is!"

The bedouin's vehemence grew as he continued. "And sin! He is so interested in whether or not I sin - let him feel my temptation. Let him experience my weaknesses. Then let us see how he feels about all the rules and commands he has put on me - rules I cannot live up to, yet if I do not live up to them," the bedouin snarled, "he will not like me anymore!"

"Let him feel what I feel, here in this miserable aching, decaying body of mine! And then, let him die! Yes, let him die the way I will probably die, like most wanderers die, out here alone. Homeless, uncared for, forsaken, forgotten! If he wants to impress me, let him become like me. Then maybe I will believe in your God...but not until then!"
~Gene Edwards in The Birth (An awesome view of Christ's birth from the perspective of angels looking down upon and participating in the scenes)

May you believe more deeply in the One who felt our temptations...  experienced our weaknesses...Who smells the stink, poverty, and pains of this world.

To Him be all glory! And may peace reign in your heart...because you know a God who knows...

Merry Christmas!

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Labor pains

 Christmas Eve...within 24 hours, Mary, you will give birth to the Most High. What was said of your life has and will come to pass...the Promise (not just to you, but from the beginning of time) was true and is now being fulfilled.


Amazing...

But perhaps that doesn't alleviate your discomfort in these moments...

• The discomfort of riding a donkey while 9 months pregnant...
• The discomfort of being away from family and familiar, "homey" environments...
• The discomfort of your water breaking, contractions starting, and watching your betrothed run frantically from door to door trying to find a place for you to have this baby...
• The discomfort of laying on prickly straw...
• Painful contractions coming ever closer together...
• The discomfort of looking at Joseph's helpless face...and the stench of the stable making your already nauseous stomach intolerable...
• The discomfort of delivery without drugs, or doctors, or sterile environments...
• The oddity of holding a seemingly helpless and vulnerable God, made flesh as a newborn, in your arms...

 My discomforts seem hardly to compare.

Did you scream in pain? Were you cognizant that God was being born into the world? In the midst of the excruciating discomforts of your current reality, did you have second guesses about saying "Yes" to this audacious request to bear the Son of God? Did you look at the vulnerable little baby and ponder, "How is this the Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace?" To what degree were you aware of the immensity of this moment?

Thank you Mary.

Thank you for saying yes. Thank you for consenting to Loving God's request. Thank you for being obedient despite the discomforts of all you endured - not just physically in delivering a child, but in all the scandals, naysayers and pointing "shame on you" fingers you endured.

Two millenia later, I feel loved by you, strengthened by your example, encouraged to hold fast in my own reality of discomforts - real or perceived. What is the "more" that is transpiring in the midst of what feels painful? Lord, what are you birthing in and through me and my life? Will I say yes? I want to say "yes!"

"All we could ever imagine, could ever hope for He is. He is the wise royal Counselor who fills us with wonder, who holds the tangled storylines of history and will one day bring true understanding between all individuals and nations. He is the God of Might, whose power can accomplish any and every task His holiness demands. His power we need not fear for He is also the Father Eternal who is tenderness itself and who is ever motivated by His everlasting love for His children. Finally, He is Prince of Peace whose first coming has already transformed society but whose second coming will forever establish justice and righteousness. Al this and infinitely more, alive in an impoverished baby in a barn.

"That is what Christmas means - to find in a place where you would least expect to find anything you want, everything you could ever want."
~Michael Card, in The Promise: A Celebration of Christ's Birth

 For reFlection:

• In the midst of your Christmas preparations and celebrations, are you encountering discomforts?
• What are you "wishing for" as you celebrate Christmas tonight and tomorrow? I.e. What is the "Everything you could ever want?" 
• How might you find the "more" God might be birthing in and through you even in the midst of your discomforts?

 www.mysoulrefresh.com

We have so little to do with Christmas...

"Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace."

~John Wesley

"Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we - with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities - had little to do with God's work in Jesus. God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn't think of it, understand it, or approve it. All we could do in Bethlehem was receive it. A gift from God we hardly even knew.

"It's tough to be on the receiving end of love, God's or anybody else's. It requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts... This is often the way God loves us: with gifts we thought we didn't need, which transform us into people we don't necessarily want to be. With our advanced degrees, armies, government programs, material comforts and self-fulfillment techniques, we assume that religion is about giving a little of our power in order to confirm to ourselves that we are indeed as self-sufficient as we claim.

"Then this stranger comes to us, blesses us with a gift, and calls us to see ourselves as we are - empty-handed recipients of a gracious God who, rather than leave us to our own devices, gave us a baby."
~William Willimon in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

 For reFlection:

• Do you see your life as a gift or a possession? What might the differences be lived out?
• In what ways do you find it easier to give than receive?
• Our inability to receive can often be a symptom of our need to protect or defend ourselves in order to remain in control vs. be vulnerable. Protected people cannot be transformed. Vulnerable people can. The gist of Christianity IS transformation...in what ways do you wish to be transformed?
• How might you let yourself be loved by receiving over these next few days?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

When Christmas becomes a burden...

Beautiful words from Ann Voskamp...

"Christ the Babe comes in Christmas as Christ the Savior comes on the Cross — seeking only our embrace.
What if I laid down efforts and expectations, perfectionism and performance, and simply waited with arms and heart and eyes wide open?"

Christmas cannot be bought. Christmas cannot be created. Christmas cannot be made by hand. Christmas can only be found.

Enjoy the full reflection here, linger with her words, her photos, her invitations...


For reFlection:

• How are you "finding" Christmas vs. making it happen? 
• What difference might discovery make in your celebrations?
• How might you seek to embrace (or be embraced) by the gift of God this week?
• What do you need to lay down to open your eyes and arms to God's gifts?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

What we choose changes us

"Mary was not the only one who chose to leave the life she had thought would be hers. In choosing Mary and her child, in welcoming the Word into his life, Joseph had his own threshold to cross, his own radical yes to say to God. Perhaps on the night of Jesus’ birth, Joseph lifted up a father’s Magnificat in syllables lost to us; perhaps, in a shelter far from home, he wove them into a lullaby for his chosen child.
What are you choosing this day? In your waking, in your dreaming, how are you listening for and attending to the messages and the invitations that are waiting for you?"

A Prayer for Choosing

What we choose
changes us.

Who we love
transforms us.

How we create
remakes us.

Where we live
reshapes us.

So in all our choosing,
O God, make us wise;

in all our loving,
O Christ, make us bold;

in all our creating,
O Spirit, give us courage;

in all our living
may we become whole.

Jan L. Richardson - original post here.

What places in your life need a radical yes? Transformation? Greater intimacy and courage?

Pray this prayer between now and Christmas morning...and pay attention to what might be reshaped, emboldened, given courage, wholeness, fresh wisdom...

Peace...shalom...wholeness...wellness...courageous settledness to you and yours!

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Another outlandish request...

Joseph, I know that you are an upright man, a good guy. As good as they come. And you have every right to stone Mary, your intended bride, because of her seemed infidelity.

How did that feel? What dreams were shattered? What issues of your manhood were devastated? What hopes were dashed? I wonder if your stomach felt nauseous or if your fists were perpetually tensed or if you caught yourself exhaling deep sighs of stress?

What advice were you getting from others? Did their words help you or hinder you?

Rather than retaliate, you decided to kindly divorce her quietly...without making a scene, without you coming out as the hero, the "good guy" the one who would deserve the town's pity in every little gossipy conversation. You were far from a narcissist - no manipulation, no grandiose gestures, no passive aggressive self-promotion. How much did you just want this to go away...and maybe, maybe one day you could move on. Maybe.

And then came angel in the dream. "Don't be afraid to marry Mary...this is not what it looks like. This is outside the box. Yes, it's outlandish. But so is my love for humanity. Joseph, son of David, in the lineage of the intended Messiah...I am choosing you..."

To say this is outlandish is equivalent to asking a Jewish holocaust survivor to forgive Hitler. It is an impossible task. One that is not required...unless the Outlandish One, who so loved the world He sent His one and only Son to be born of a virgin, in utter poverty, to live and be crucified for the sins of the world, unless that One steps in and extends an invitation to mimic such outlandish behavior...

"Joseph woke up and did exactly as the angel commanded..."

He didn't say, "Was that just a dream? Maybe I ate too much lamb last night and..." He didn't second guess. He woke up and did exactly as the angel commanded: Married Mary, did not have sex with Mary (now there's a miracle!) until after the birth of Jesus -  and named his son Jesus. Just as he was commanded.

Where was the "peace" in this already humiliating scene made more scandalous?

Imagine if Joseph would have made a pro/con chart to make his decision....if left to his own, would he have made his decision on what felt "peaceful"?

For reflection:

• What are some outlandish requests that you've received from God? How did that feel?
• What feels "outlandish" to you currently...is there a situation you are trying to "figure out." How might you invite God into that decision?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Fourth Sunday in Advent...Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

~Jesus (John 14.27)

 Jesus speaks parting words to his beloved disciples. Similar to the words throughout the Christmas story...Jesus invites them toward trust, which always the gateway to peace. Essentially Jesus is saying, "Regardless of what this all looks and feels like (i.e. it really doesn't make any logical sense and seems messy),  you do not need to be afraid."

Oh, into how many of my messy, seemingly unpeaceful life situations do I need to receive these words?

Jesus does not give like the world gives...

His giving isn't commercialized nor advertised (except often so poorly by our own lives or tacky church signage) and especially not discounted. There are no coupons - except maybe the one that says, "Free." (There is no fine print on that coupon either.)

His giving is neither manipulative nor monopolizing - there are not strings attached. No hidden fees, no obligations.

His giving costs nothing but our opening our hearts to receive.

He gives what we all long for:

Peace: wholeness/wellness/settledness.

I love how Eugene Peterson translates this in The Message:

I'm leaving you well and whole. 

That's my parting gift to you. 

Peace. 

I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—

feeling abandoned, bereft. 

So don't be upset. Don't be distraught. 

For reflection:

• In what areas of your life do you need wellness or wholeness?
• Are there any places where you feel abandoned or bereft?
• What would it look like to invite Jesus into that space?
• He gives not as the world gives...so we are to receive not as the world receives...what might that receiving look like in your current reality?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

 

The long slow journey...

If
as Herod
we fill our lives with things
and again with things,
if we consider ourselves so important
that we must fill every moment of our lives
with action,
when will we have time
to make the long, slow journey
across the desert
as did the Magi?
Or sit and watch the stars
as did the shepherds?
Or brood over the coming of a child
as did Mary?
For each one of us
there is a desert to travel.
A star to discover.
And a being within ourselves to bring to life.

~Unknown - poem shared in class by my teacher.

For reflection:

• Have you ever taken a long, slow journey? What was that like?
• When you reached the end, was it worth it?
• Which word or phrase caught your attention?
• Ask the Lord, "How does this connect to my life/circumstances?"
• What might you be longing to discover, watch, enjoy in life? How do "things" and "filling every moment of our lives with action" interfere with your longing?
• Ask the Lord, "Lord, what are you inviting me toward?" Listen in and pay attention to how you feel about God's invitation.

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Try to not cry...

Releasing a deep, deep joy...

 

In the midst of all the "preparations" for Christmas, the ones besides preparing room in my heart for Him, I am far too easily overwhelmed, sidetracked and find myself slipping down into a subtle malaise.While busily preparing for Christmas, I am missing the whole point of it...and certainly the joy of it. If I unjoyfully decorate, wrap gifts and am frustrated with the joyful and attentive, but dreadfully slow, checkout clerk then something's not quite right.

I'm saddened by how easily this happens - how much more I long to be meaningfully and joyfully present to each moment of my day. To treasure the moments...to practice what I preach.

So yesterday, I caught myself spinning down, down, downward ... and this was especially so after coming home from a multi-day media free retreat and being slammed by emails, unpaid bills, and Christmas planning.

I started sinking...until...

I put on some music and just started dancing!

That's right - not even Christmas music! There was a little Chris Tomlin, Bruce Hornsby and Gungor. And guess what...joy returned.
Joy spilled over!
Joy in my soul seemed to be released as I moved my body!

So today, take five minutes. Put on your favorite "feel good" music and move! Invite the whole family to frolic together...to let loose...and see if just maybe moving your body will release a deep joy in your soul.

Maybe intend to start each day between now and Christmas with a little dance...see if that makes any difference in your day. Let me know what happens!

Joy to the world...and heaven and nature sing...and dance...and frolic...


www.mysoulrefresh.com

Outbursts...

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

What has been your most recent "outburst"? I think mine was on the freeway...some idiot...well, you know...


But seriously -

What is so deeply embedded in you that it bursts out in joyful celebration?

When was the last time you burst out in anything - was it joy, or rage, or excitement of a touchdown at a football game? The things that burst out of us expose what is in our hearts. The things that irrepressibly come forth from us divulge, whether we like it or not, what we love.

As you enter this day - pay attention to your desire to have joy in your life. How might you cultivate this life of bursting with joy?

Isaac Watts, the author of the famed Christmas carol, Joy to the World, gives us a clue:

Let every heart prepare Him room.
Let every heart prepare Him
Let every heart prepare
Let every heart
Let every
Let

Which means you have a choice to open your heart...to prepare your heart...to receive His coming...and to burst out with a joyful song, dance or "oh yeah!" when He comes to make His blessings known.


During Advent God does the coming...everyday...our job is to do the "letting" the "receiving" the "preparing." What is one small way the Lord might be inviting you to do that today?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Joy in preparing

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

In the past few days have you found unhurried space to prepare room in your heart for Him?

Or has it seemed that you've had to send God off to the stable because of busyness, distractions, and being overwhelmed with all the Christmas preparations?

Is there a connection between preparing room and bearing joy? If so, could we conversely posit that lack of joy is directly related to lack of preparing room in your heart for the One who is the Source, Means and End of Joy?

I'm just wondering...


What things in the past have helped you prepare room in your heart for God? Take a moment of silence now and ask God, "Lord, in what ways might I prepare room for you today?"


Joy.
JoY.
JOY

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Joy in receiving....

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

Do you find it easy or difficult to receive? We often quote that it is more blessed (and so we think spiritual) to give than to receive, but I think it's easier to give than to receive. I like being generous. I love to see others blessed. But when I am on the receiving end I feel humbled...and sometimes guilty, and sometimes obligated. Many times I squirm...because either I feel undeserving or feign underserving. There have been times when I had no intention to give a gift to someone, but after they gave something to me, I ran out to pick something out for them.

Why can't I just receive - fully - with gratitude and without obligation to return the favor?
I do this poorly on a human level so when the God of the universe comes in to lavish His love and delight and care on me...oh my...I stand in the way of what I most want - to let myself be loved utterly.

Leonard Sweet says, "My inability to receive is the greatest disability I have."

How are you as a receiver (and might also say as a lover, for a lover must learn to gracefully dance in the giving and receiving of love)?

And how might joy - true and lasting joy - be connected to learning how to be a good receiver? In other words, how might joy be the natural, irrepressibley by-product of our simply stopping in the midst of the ordinary to "receive" all that a moment has to offer us?

The bottom line gist of Christianity is receiving: "For it is by grace (unearned, unmerited pardon) that you are saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast." Eph 3. 8-9

unearned...not of yourselves...a gift...not a result of works...no one can boast...

How might you become a better "receiver" this Christmas? Will you let others step in to help serve your needs - even if they do it imperfectly? Will you be more present to the moments and linger in the beauty of even the simplest tastes, sights, sounds and smells of Christmas?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Third Sunday in Advent...Joy

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

Joy because God has come.

Not just in a past event...He is ever coming...intimately acquainted with our everyday lives (Psalm 139). David pens, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me (pursue me) all the days of my life." (Ps. 23:6) and Solomon declares that God's mercies are new EVERY morning. (Lamentations 3: 22-23).

Do you sense that God is aware of the joys and concerns of your life? Are you aware that He comes every morning with new mercies? Do you believe He is pursuing you? Do you want to be caught by His loving pursuit? (And what is your immediate response to that question...pay attention to your body, your breathing, your desires...what is happening?)
Or perhaps you have experienced a time when you were "caught" by God's love and mercy: What was that like? What did you discover about yourself and God?

This consider prayerfully starting each morning,

"Lord, I want to be caught by your love. 

Will you unexpectedly delight me

and make me aware of Your intimate pursuit of me."

And keep your eyes pealed...He likes to show up in unexpected places...sorta like a baby in a feeding trough.


www.mysoulrefresh.com

Stop to worship amid the "ordinary" of your day...

What I love about this video is the unexpectancy...amid the flurry of a fastfood court at a noisy mall in breaks joy and truth and power!

Look for how God might "come" to you in unexpected ways today!

www.mysoulrefresh.com
sister blog: www.mybodyrefresh.blogspot.com

Celebrate Small at Advent...

Acorns turn into oak trees. Embryos become President. Love starts with hello. Life starts with a breath. All small, like Bethlehem.
Small things don’t always turn into big things, but big things always start out small. Lean into small, celebrate small. And in the words of a wise friend and counselor, don’t despise the days of small beginnings. ~ Emily Freeman

Hundreds of years before the census of Caesar Augustus and the birth of Christ...the prophet Micah wrote this:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, 

out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, 

whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

–Micah 5:2

A small edict - a census form - required Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem. Bethlehem...the least and easily overlooked of all the clans of Judah, the humble birthplace for Messiah. A feeding trough in a stable - an uncomely home for a newborn King. A poor carpenter from Nazareth, an unlikely daddy to raise the Son of God. An unwed mother - a scandalous choice to bear the Savior of the world. Disreputable Shepherds - unlikely first witnesses to God incarnating into the world.


For reflection:

• Sit with the Lord today and ask Him, "What are the small things - the overlooked things - that you'd like me to pay attention to?"
• Reflect on someone you love and how that love story began (sort of that "You had me at hello moment...). How might you create a small, loving gesture to someone today - a smile to a storeclerk, holding the door for the elderly, calling someone who God has brought to your heart?)
• How might you celebrate the "small" things of your day today - (saying "no" to that 2nd helping, saying "yes" to extended time with your child even when the laundry didn't get finished, taking 10 minutes at lunch to walk around the block and breathe in fresh air)?

UnhurryUp™ and celebrate the small things of Advent

www.mysoulrefresh.com
and the new sisterblog to mysoulrefresh = www.mybodyrefresh.blogspot.com

When all the gifts are for Him...

I am impressed that Ann Voskamp and her family have spent a decade NOT giving gifts to one another on Christmas...but giving gifts to Jesus...Check out this blog post - great ideas and challenges!

For reFlection:

• What did you find yourself liking about these suggestions? (I liked the cake for breakfast :)
• What did you dislike?
• Pay attention to your heart...is there something different that you want to do this year? What is it? How might you take initiative to make that happen as a family?

Christmas Change from Kujilana on Vimeo.

 www.mysoulrefresh.com
and the new sisterblog at www.mybodyrefresh.blogspot.com

Advent ponderings from a prison cell...

Today is Pearl Harbor remembrance day from WWII - on the other side of the world, in Germany, a young theologian was penning his thoughts from a Nazi prison...

"A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian, a pastor, a spiritual writer, a musician, and an author of fiction and poetry. As a Christian, Bonnhoeffer lived in Germany during the time of Hitler and stood up in voice and action against the atrocities facing the Jewish people. In April of 1943 he was imprisoned for his political resistance to the Nazi's brutality. Nearly two years later he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp. When it was discovered that Bonnhoeffer was a part of a group attempting to assassinate Hitler, Hitler ordered Bonnhoeffer and the other members of this group to be killed. 

 

On April 9th, 1945, Bonhoeffer (age 39) was hanged at Flossenburg for his participation in a Protestant resistance movement to the Nazi regime.

 

For reflection:

• What strikes you about Bonnhoeffer's statement in light of his imprisonment?
• Did Bonnhoeffer ultimately get freedom? How does your answer make you feel?
• What are some of the perceived "prisons" of your life that you need "Someone" from the outside to open the door?
• How might you hope in Christ to be near you in your waiting and hoping?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

and check out the sisterblog www.mybodyrefresh.blogspot.com

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

 The top middle picture is a reconstructed face of the real St. Nick based upon modern forensic anthropology.

Taking a moment out of Advent to celebrate the real, godly St. Nicholas! Click here for a previous post about celebrating St. Nicholas day. Or feel free to go to www.saintnicholascenter.org for more info about St. Nick.

May you share anonymously in the memory of St. Nicholas today - take some warm coffee to a bell ringer, help your neighbor to rake up any leaves or sweep their walk; bless someone you know with a bag of groceries - have fun! Be creative! Love boldly and joyfully like Nick!

www.mysoulreFresh.com

Advent Week 2 - Celebrating Love

^{Today marks the 2nd Sunday in Advent - celebrating Love...}

^{Here is Jesus' invitation from John 15:} 

⁴"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. 

In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself 

but only by being joined to the vine, 

you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

 ^5-8"I am the Vine, you are the branches. 

When you're joined with me and I with you,

the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. 

Separated, you can't produce a thing. 

Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, 

gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. 

But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, 

you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. 

This is how my Father shows who he is—

when you produce grapes, 

when you mature as my disciples.

 ^9-10"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. 

Make yourselves at home in my love. 

If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. 

That's what I've done—

kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.

 ^11ff"I've told you these things for a purpose: 

that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. 

This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. 

This is the very best way to love. 

For reflection:

• Read the passage above outloud a few times. What words or phrases do you notice? 
• Read the passage again: Silently give space to ask the Lord, "How does this word or phrase connect to my heart, my life circumstances?" Listen in for any inkling of a gentle connection.
• Read the passage again: Ask the Lord, "What are you inviting me toward?" Again, sit quietly listening for His gentle wooings of something He wants you to pay deeper attention to.
• Journal or discuss: In the midst of listening I sensed God saying..... How I feel about this invitation is.... (nervous, at peace, confused, doubtful, more interested....)
• Journal or discuss: What makes you feel at home? How might you become more at home in God's love? How might you draw what "feeling at home"?

www.mysoulrefresh.com
and the new sisterblog: www.mybodyrefresh.com

Give more Presence this year...

How do you feel about giving presents? Does it stress you out or bring you delight?

A couple of years ago our family decided that buying gifts just because that's the tradition of what we've always done stresses us out. So instead: We decided to give gifts to charities of our choice on behalf of one another. We've given chickens and goats to children, we've donated to wounded soldiers funds, and to help fund ministries reaching out to care for women in sex trafficking and to help developing countries get wells for clean water. I cannot tell you how much less stress this has brought to our Christmas preparations - and a deep joy knowing that we don't have to return the ugly sweater :)

• Are you resolving, again, this year that you will make Christmas more meaningful? 
• What if you made more time to either make gifts or to be WITH one another? 
• 20 days from now, when Christmas day arrives will you be glad for how you have spend your time and money? 
• Have you become numb to the "norm" of merely surviving the Christmas season with financial, relational, and physical stress from overindulgence?

Choose NOW what you want more - and take proactive initiative to do one thing differently that will help you give more of YOURSELF and YOUR TIME to others this season.

Once again, it seems time (we're too busy and especially during this season) is our enemy when we think about caring for the world, our families and fostering a deeper spiritual life during this Holyday season. When will you stop making "lack of time" be your excuse for what you really want?

What might you do differently to give more Presence this year - and give a bit of the money you save to some of your favorite charities?

May you UnhurryUp™ your way into worship and joy this season...
and may His presence be reFreshing to your soul!

www.mysoulreFresh.com

The hardly noticeable power of God

Click here for a little re-visit from last year's Advent reflections

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Confronting the corrosion of the heart ...an advent reflection from Rob Bell

Here is a snippet of a great article re: the rhythm of Advent (and the church calendar as a whole) from Rob Bell:

Advent is about anticipating the birth of Christ. It’s about longing, desire, that which is yet to come. That which isn’t here yet. And so we wait, expectantly. Together. With an ache. Because all is not right. Something is missing.
Why does Advent mean so much to me?
Because cynicism is the new religion of our world. Whatever it is, this religion teaches that it isn’t as good as it seems. It will let you down. It will betray you.
That institution? That church? That politician? That authority figure? They’ll all let you down.
Whatever you do, don’t get your hopes up. Whatever you think it is, whatever it appears to be, it will burn you, just give it time.
Advent confronts this corrosion of the heart with the insistence that God has not abandoned the world, hope is real and something is coming.
Advent charges into the temple of cynicism with a whip of hope, overturning the tables of despair, driving out the priests of that jaded cult, announcing there’s a new day and it’s not like the one that came before it.
“The not yet will be worth it,” Advent whispers in the dark.
Old man Simeon stands in the temple, holding the Christ child, rejoicing that now he can die because what he’d been waiting for actually arrived.
And so each December (though Advent starts the last Sunday of November this year), we enter into a season of waiting, expecting, longing. Spirit meets us in the ache.
We ask God to enter into the deepest places of cynicism, bitterness and hardness where we have stopped believing that tomorrow can be better than today.
We open up. We soften up. We turn our hearts in the direction of that day. That day when the baby cries His first cry and we, surrounded by shepherds and angels and everybody in between, celebrate that sound in time that brings our Spirits what we’ve been longing for.

Click here for the full article

For reflection:

• What are you cynical about in our world today? About church?
• How might Advent confront this cynical corrosion of your heart?
• What ache/longing do you have deep in your heart that you could talk to God about today?
• In what ways do you believe the "not yet" of God's kingdom, both here on earth and after death, be worth it? What part of the "not yet" do you look forward to?
• Listen in and ask God, "In what part of my life/outlook might you want to soften my heart?"

unhurryUp!™

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Waiting...or wandering...

Waiting for Christ to Come
by Henri Nouwen

"If we do not wait patiently in expectation for God's coming in glory, we start wandering around, going from one little sensation to another. Our lives get stuffed with newspaper items, television stories, and gossip. Then our minds lose the discipline of discerning between what leads us closer to God and what doesn't, and our hearts gradually lose their spiritual sensitivity.

"Without waiting for the second coming of Christ, we will stagnate quickly and become tempted to indulge in whatever gives us a moment of pleasure. When Paul asks us to wake from sleep, he says: "Let us live decently, as in the light of day; with no orgies or drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop worrying about how your disordered natural inclinations may be fulfilled" (Romans 13:13-14). When we have the Lord to look forward to, we can already experience him in the waiting."

Henri Nouwen

Consider:

• What words or scenes come to your mind/heart when you think about waiting? How do you feel about those words/scenes?
• In general, would you characterize your life as waiting or wandering? Or ???
• What is your life stuffed with? How might that keep you developing your spiritual sensitivity?
• What have you intentionally scheduled into your week that leads you closer to God?

UnhurryUp!™

www.mysoulrefresh.com