Advent: Joy in the Darkness
Depression. Anxiety. Crime. Suicide. Darkness. If you’ve watched the news at all during the past 3 years… if you have teenagers…. if your teens have friends…. There’s not a lot of talk about joy. But there’s a whole lot of talk about how hard life is. So how do we talk about joy at Christmas? I’ve recently asked myself that very question. My husband of 36 years this month is gone. He’s never coming back here. I know he’s out of pain. I know he’s in a better place. But where does that leave me? Mental health professionals tell us the holidays are the hardest time of year for many…
Advent: Reminders of Love for All
If you have attended church for any amount of time, you are familiar with John 3:16. It reminds us that God loved us so much that he sent Jesus. Not to condemn us. To save us. From sin, darkness, death, and evil. I find that tremendously reassuring this Christmas season. I especially appreciate this passage in The Message: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely…
Advent: The Presence of Peace
“How am I supposed to have peace when my life is such a mess?” “….when my child won’t talk to me?” “…when my loved one is gone forever?” “…when the world is so filled with darkness?” These are fair questions. I’ve asked them. You may have too. Or someone close to you has – or is asking them right now. In his Messianic prophecy, Isaiah foretold Jesus would be called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In their majestic announcement of Jesus’s arrival, the angels proclaimed there would now be “peace on earth” (Luke 2:14). When Jesus was departing this earth, he left his disciples with this encouraging message: “I…
Advent: A Story of Hope
I thought and prayed a long time before deciding to write an Advent series again this Christmas season. You may know my husband David passed from this world to his eternal home on September 21st – just weeks ago. As I write, the grief is still fresh. It’s surreal. I keep thinking he’s going to call asking what’s for dinner…or if we could go to dinner. (We talked a lot about dinner!) At the same time, I’ve been thinking a lot about hope these past several weeks. “And now, dear brothers, I want you to know what happens to a Christian when he dies so that when it happens, you…
Worthy: An Advent Devotional
I’ve spent the past 25 years coaching storytellers. I’ve heard them all – family history stories, cultural stories, retellings of fairytales, stories of personal tragedies and celebrations. But it’s the story of Christmas that is the greatest story of all. The story of Christmas is a story of Love coming to live with us. Jesus, Emmanuel, is the source of all Love, born into this world. There is no story more worthy of telling than this. It’s my motivation for empowering extraordinary storytellers…. Because the best story deserves the best telling. In 1885, British writer Christina Georgina Rossetti published a poem called “Christmastide.” It later was adapted into a beautiful…
Wonder: An Advent Devotional
There’s nothing like a toddler at Christmas time. Last Christmas, my then almost-two-year-old grandson came to visit after we had decorated the yard with Christmas lights. It was like someone had plopped him into a true wonderland. As soon as he got out of the car, he ran up the yard to the nearest adorned tree. Tentatively, he reached out his little hand to touch the glowing lights. I could see the awe and wonder reflecting in his big, sparkling eyes. Then, he ran up the yard as fast as his little legs could carry him to touch another tree. Again and again, he bolted from one lit-up tree to…
Wisdom: An Advent Devotional
When my children were young, we used to host a “birthday party” for Jesus each December. A common practice in Sunday School and Christian School settings. We’d sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and eat cake in His honor in hopes that it would help us – especially our children – to focus on the reason for the season. Then we would rush off to the next activity, meeting, or gathering in an effort to get to everything we packed into the holiday season. I think of some other people who long ago celebrated the birth of Jesus, bringing him what we might think of as “birthday presents.” In the old…
Waiting: An Advent Devotional
I don’t like to wait. For anything. And since I rarely practice it, I’m not very good at it. You won’t find me waiting in long lines to get into a popular restaurant or camped out for the release of a new tech device or a movie premiere. Simply put, I’m impatient, and waiting feels like a waste of time. And I’m not alone. It’s hard for people in contemporary culture to wait for things. Like me, people are busy checking off to-do lists, cramming in meetings and appointments, rushing through experiences to get to the next thing. We are bombarded with messages telling us to hurry so we don’t…
