Tiredness is a Master Thief

Tired...

Tired. Weary. Exhausted.
Bone-crushing, mind-numbing, joy-stealing, anxiety-growing - tired.

And so I caffeinate. Sacrifice much needed sleep in order to keep my crazy schedule. Substitute coffee for water, for Living Water, so that one more thing can be done, one more commitment kept, one more, one more.

But what have I done this week for the One. The One who is my only audience. The One who this Advent season is preparing for, and is my tired hectic self preparing for him? I'm too tired.

Yet, there is grace and comfort. While my anxious heart constricts so hard I hunch my shoulders over to ease the tension, Christ is there asking for me to trust him with my burdens.

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If I am too tired for the One and Only, then something is really out of whack. Father, show me how to find rest & rest in You.

Prayer for Sunday

Taken from "scientia et sapientia" - the blog of Western Seminary's Th.M. program, posted by Marc Cortez (click on the title of the post to see the original blog post):

O Lord our God, you wanted to live not only in heaven, but also with us, here on earth; not only to be high and great, but also to be small and lowly, as we are; not only to rule, but also to serve us; not only to be God in eternity, but also to be born as a person, to live, and to die.

In your dear Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, you have given us none other than  yourself, that we may wholly belong to you. This affects all of us, and none of us has deserved this. What remains for us to do but to wonder, to rejoice, to be thankful, and to hold fast to what you have done for us?

We ask you to let this be the case in this hour, among us and in all of us! Let us become a proper Christmas community in honest, open, and willing praying and singing, speaking and hearing, and let us in great hunger be a proper Communion community! Amen.
~Karl Barth (1886-1968)

What Would Jesus Buy?

Last Sunday at church was a big kick-off to Advent Conspiracy which is all about relational giving and bucking the consumerism that has overtaken Christmas. Instead of a regular sermon Rick had three people talk - 1. Clark, the pastor of missional communities, about how adopting the Advent Conspiracy philosophy has impacted his family. 2. Stan, from Living Water Intl., the recipients and partner organization of Advent Conspiracy which is working to solve the world water problem. He spoke about the communities that benefited from the 11 wells our Advent offering was able to build this past year and the 23 communities that have been identified to benefit from this years gift. 3. the third person (who actually was the second to speak) was Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame. Yes, this was his first church "interview." He was sharing about a new movie that was being released last weekend that he helped produce called "What Would Jesus Buy?" A brief intro to the movie taken from the website...

"What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt! The Shopocalypse is upon us … Who will be $aved?"

If you want to hear the "interview" with Rick from Sunday 11/25, download the sermon here or download the podcast. Or if you are short on time, KATU actually ran a short blip on the news which is posted here. I guess it actually ran on Good Morning America as well. The movie is playing locally at Cinema 21 until December 8th.

I see the light(s)!

I saw lights yesterday! As I turned on to my street,heading home there on the corner the house was adorned with alternating red and green Christmas lights along the eaves of the house! I was so excited! CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! With the weather today being all blustery cool and stormy along with there being snow coming down in Brno I'm beginning to feel like winter is here and Christmas is around the corner. I've loaded my Ipod with all Christmas music - I'm ready to go! But the big day will come and go before I know it. I haven't started to do Christmas shopping, I don't even have any good ideas yet. I don't have my requisite Christmas letter started. I don't have my St. Nick party on the calendar yet - I may not even do it this year. I want to enjoy the season, be able to reflect on the marvelous event Christmas celebrates, and frankly - everything else just stresses me out and kills the joy. To try and counteract this I'm seeing how I can incorporate Advent Conspiracy philosophy into my life this season. Let's all take a collective deep breathe, slowly let it out, put aside Western consumerism and take Christmas back!