Spiritual Compass

This Advent season, I have been focusing on how to orient my life toward hope, peace, love, and joy.  Like the four directions on a compass (north, south, east, and west), these four words can guide our lives not only to the stable where the One who has eternity dancing in his eyes lay away in a manger, these words can guide our lives everyday.  There have been two thoughts I keep returning to with this image.  First is that there is a difference between a compass and a GPS.  My GPS tells me exactly where to go and how to get there.  It has a set path it wants me to take (sometimes for very good reasons because of traffic!)  The other day, I varied the path my GPS was guiding me.  I kept going on one road I knew would also get me to my destination.  The GPS tried three times to get me to take a U-Turn...I thought Siri sounded a bit annoyed each time I ignored and kept going my way.  Now, I love my GPS, it has gotten me back on my path more times that I can count.  But, sometimes I don't want the exact path, I want the general direction.  That is where a compass comes in very handy.  It won't tell me which roads are "right" or "wrong"....just tells me if I am heading in direction I wish to go.  As a quick exit ramp...I think some churches function more today like GPS rather than compasses.  They want to tell you exactly what to believe, how to believe, how to act.  And that can be true regardless of whether the church congregates under the banner of "Evangelical" or "Progressive" or "Emergent".  Those words assume certain paths are better than others.  But that is another post.  

The first question is how do I orient my life toward hope, peace, love, and joy?  Are there actions that set my heart, mind, soul and whole self in that direction?  Are there actions that distract or distance me for that?  It is intentional that John the Baptist's sermon is, "Repent," which means turn around, get on another pathway, one that might lead you and connect you to God.  

The second question is how do I define these words?  Definitions matter because they give us insight into our thinking and understanding.  Definitions are fluid.  I understood love one way when I first met my wife, another when our children were born, and another as I see partners care for a loved one who is aging.  These words of hope, peace, joy, and love are elastic and can embrace us where we are...at the same time bind us together.

For me, hope is standing between what is (reality I see on the news) and what can be (God's promise and presence still moving in our midst).  To lean too much toward the violence and brokenness and political pandering of the world would point me in the direction of cynicism.  And getting too focused on the spiritual life can also be a form of escapism.  God calls us to be present in this world at this time.  And hope can feel in small supply when we watch the evening news.  But it is not only up to us to hold that sacred space between the what is and what can be...for it is here where I believe God is moving and awakening our thoughts. 

I hope you might write your own definition of hope this week.  Light a candle, call it hope, watch the flame flicker before your eyes and be in steeped in the sacred.  I pray you will sense more than a trace of God's grace as you orient your life toward hope in these December days as we approach Christmas.

Grace and peace    

Church Seasons ~ Advent

We have looked at the four seasons, now we turn to the church seasons.  There is a different rhythm and routine to the church year...what is often called the liturgical year.  These seasons offer us an important insight about faith and living in relationship with each other.  The church year starts with the season of Advent.  This is the four Sundays before Christmas.  Christmas is always on December 25th, so look backwards and find the four Sundays preceding and that is Advent.  

Advent was at one time forty days, mirroring the season of Lent (the 40 days, excluding Sundays, before Easter).  But at some point it was narrowed.  Each Sunday you light a candle for the season of Advent.  The candles are named: hope, peace, joy, and love.  These candles light the way for the coming, the birth of Jesus at Christmas.  These candles light the way as darkness descends on the earth (until the winter solstice ~ which is December 22nd, the longest night, and slowly days start to have more sunlight).  In one way, the church mirrors what is happening around us.  As night is growing longer, less sun, we light candles to proclaim that hope, peace, joy, and love can never be extinguished.  These candles, often in a circle like the candles above, are like a compass.  We strive to orientate ourselves toward hope, peace, joy, and love.  We strive to stand at the center where we find Christ.  

Season of Advent is about waiting (not only for Christmas presents) but for the long-expected Jesus.  It is about watching for signs of God's movement.  It is about keeping awake for the sound of God's still singing voice.  It is about preparing a place in the "stable" of our hearts for the One who is God's love incarnate (in the flesh).

Most scholars talk about the scandal of the particular.  That God was willing to take on flesh, enter into our lives and be make real God's presence.  Emmanuel means God is with us.  Sometimes that is to suggest that God is NOT with you...who the other group is that gets on your nerves or tests your patience.  Emmanuel is for all people.  In fact, the prophet Isaiah images all people...ALL people... streaming to God's mountain.  That may not have a snowball's chance in Florida of happening, but that is the kind of vision and prayer we try to stay awake, alert and ready to receive anew during Advent.  

In some ways, four weeks is not enough for such life-changing world.  In other ways, we don't need to stop waiting, watching, and preparing just because the calendar is turned to December 25th.  As the first church season, this wisdom sets the tone for the entire church year.  As we move on to other seasons, listen for how this truth keeps on echoing...echoing around.  

Until then, where are you in the advent of your faith journey, which might feel more like spring than the bleak mid-winter when Advent takes place.  Where are their the faintest signs of hope, peace, joy, and love starting to spark, promising and pointing to something more?  That is the truth of Advent and one I pray that you will begin to hold onto before we even light that first candle at the end of November.  May you find some candles, light one and call it hope.  Where is hope stirring?  Where do you need peace?  What brings you joy?  And where does love glow brightly?  Don't push off preparing room for Christ...for indeed that is an invitation every day...not only in December.  May you sense more than a trace of God's grace as you light candles and reflect on the season of Advent.

Blessings