Today was a great day – spent time with friends, accomplished a lot, laughed a lot. But I have arrived at this end of the day utterly exhausted. And I still have some work to do before bed. Tomorrow is going to be equally hectic. I have two services to preach, a choir practice (we’re singing with Elvis next Friday…how ridiculous and cool is that!?!?) and a birthday dinner with my family. It will be a great day – I know that already. But it will also be exhausting. Just thinking about it, I find myself saying (yes, aloud, because I totally talk to myself) “Lord, give me strength.”

The good news is that muttering those words isn’t just a verbal tick. It is actually prayer. A short, not very eloquent, prayer. But a prayer nonetheless. And the really good news is that hundreds of years before he was born, the prophets of the Old Testament wrote to tell us about Jesus. And that brings us to our Scripture for today, the third day of this Advent blog project:

Jesus is the one who gives strength. When we trust in him, we find new strength. My Dad used that last verse as a call to worship every Sunday during his ministry at Amberlea PC. It is good to put our trust in the one who gives strength.

So if, like me, you find yourself exhausted during this advent season, I encourage you to take a moment. Breathe deep. Pray. Even if it is a super-short-non-eloquent prayer. Remember the Source of strength.

PS…if you haven’t noticed, Isaiah has been getting most of the press in these early days of my advent calendar. I love Isaiah. He is my favourite prophet!)

I had the chance to spend some time with a colleague and friend the other day. In the course of our conversation she mentioned that Advent is all about points of light in the midst of the darkness. It was just an offhand comment, but it has been rolling around in my brain for the past few days.

So much of our celebration of this season centers around light: those on the tree, those on the houses in the neighborhood, the candles we light in worship each week, the glow of that star that marked the place where Jesus lay.

So today’s scripture has to do with light in the darkness. Because, after all, that is who Jesus was evern before he came into our world: he was God’s plan to give light to the dark human race.

I will lead the blind on roads they have never known;

I will guide them on paths they have never traveled.

Their road is dark and rough, but I will give light to keep them from stumbling.

This is my solemn promise. (Isaiah 42:16 CEV)

Take a moment over the next few days to notice some light in the darkness. Whether you light a candle, notice the lights on your neighbor’s houses, or sit in the glow of the lights from the Christmas tree. Notice how the light, no matter how small, pushes the darkness back. Notice that the darkness does not have the power to put out the light. Remember the One who came to be the light of the world.

When I was a kid, we always had an advent calendar at Christmas time. It wasn’t one with a candy or piece of chocolate for each day. Instead, it had scripture and a part of the Christmas story and a picture for each day. I never even knew there were advent calendars with chocolate until  some of my friends told me when I was about 13.

I remember how each day, my brother and I would look forward to opening up that day’s window on the calendar to see what the picture was like and what the scripture said. My parents would gather with us and Matthew and I would alternate being the window-opener. It was a simple, beautiful tradition. Then one year, my Mom wasn’t able to find the advent calendars we had been using for years. We were disappointed and the tradition fell by the wayside, but the memory remains.

So I decided that this year, I would blog an advent calendar. Each day I will post a picture and a Scripture and some little reflection on the Christmas story.

Let’s begin:

Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands. (Isaiah 43:19 MSG)

This is one of God’s promises to us. That he is doing something new. That he is making a way where there is no way, and bringing life to the lifeless. This promise is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, but it is also simply a promise that can help us get through the difficult days. It is so much easier to face difficult times knowing that the One who makes a way where there is no way is on your side.

And today’s picture? Well, I know it may lend itself to commercial Christmas instead of spiritual Christmas, but I just couldn’t resist:

This has only happened to me one other time on my morning walk on the path. This morning the underpass to Williams Parkway was completely flooded. I am not surprised, as it rained hard for much of yesterday (and though you cannot tell from the picture, it was lightly snowing when I snapped this).

Sometimes the way you want to go is blocked. And you cannot pass. You have choices to make – go another way, turn around and go back home. But whatever you choose, it is clear that the way you thought you’d go just is not going to work. My walking partner and I turned around and went back home at this point in our walk. It shortened our walk by about 10 minutes, but since we walk for more than an hour, that’s not a big deal.

In ‘real life’, the choice isn’t always so easy. And I wonder if I should turn around and walk back home or whether another way will become clear. I don’t know at this point. I’d love to wrap up this post with some pithy and neat comment. But instead I think I must leave it hanging. Because I don’t have the answers. And I am not the saviour of the world.

(Don’t worry too much, dear readers, I am often given to a little too much melodrama when I am tired!)

Tonight, I was given a gift. A new little something to decorate my Christmas tree. It was a gesture of friendship and kindness and I am blown away by how much it meant to me.

Sometimes we think the things we can do for others don’t amount to much. But I think so often, the small acts of kindness are able to accomplish more than we can ever know.

Mother Theresa said “There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.” And I think she knew what she was talking  about.

Here is the gift I was given tonight. I know it will make me smile every time I see it.

My second tree is up! This is the one with all the memories. In the picture above I’ve share a few of my favourites. The chickadee belonged to my Nanna and every year when I hang it, I think of her and remember Christmases spent with her. The red shoe is one of many shoe ornaments that have been given to me as gifts over the years. The pig angel dates back to my high school days and was a gift from my folks. The Elvis-Stitch was a gift from my friend Luke who loves Disney even more than I do, and knows that Stitch is my favourite Disney character.

This tree is full of memories – some of them even outside of the span of my lifetime. One of the last thing I hung on the tree was a series of glass balls that my parents bought on Boxing Day their first Christmas together. They are fragile and light and someday they may all be broken, but for now, every time I unpack and hang them I remember that I am just a part of a bigger story.

And that always reminds me that we are all part of God’s big story. And that is always a good thing to remember.

One of my favourite memories from my childhood has to do with walking home from school in the semi-darkness (Northern Ontario) and seeing the Christmas tree lit up in the window of the manse where we  lived. I am not sure if this is entirely accurate – but in my memory my brother and I stopped walking, marveled at the lights and then entered the house to discover that our father had baked fresh bread that day. The lights of the tree and the smell of fresh baked bread are the sights and smells of home, Christmas, safety and love to me.

So when I moved into my own manse (which reminds me of the manse of my childhood) at the beginning of 2011, I knew I would be decorating BIG for Christmas this year. In the summer, I happened upon a yardsale in which I found a pre-lighted Christmas tree and decorations for $10. It was too good to pass up. I handed over my $10 and grinned at the thought of having more than one Christmas tree this year.

So this is my designer-tree. All of the decorations match (admittedly the angel doesn’t, but the other one was too big for this little tree), it’s all done up in silver, and dark blue and turquoise. It’s lovely. And I bet it looks kind of awesome when you are driving by outside.

Tomorrow I will decorate my other tree. Nothing will match, the colours will be all over the map. I bet there wont’ be enough lights and the angel will be too big. But it will honour all my other Christmas memories. The decorations range from the glass balls my parents bought during their first Christmas together, to ones I was given last year as a gift.

Both of these trees are significant to me. Both call to mind precious memories. And both are completely different from each other. I feel blessed to have both of them.

I hope the one in the window will create memories for those who see it shining through the dark nights of December!

It is officially one month until Christmas. My trees are not up yet and my shopping hasn’t even begun. But that is ok. There is time for all of that.
This Christmas I want to be sure that it doesn’t all rush past. I want to take the time to breathe and the time to think deeply about all the things that the Season will bring. I want to remember that the world is a different and better place because God cared enough to step out of heaven and come as a defenseless baby. I want to remember that on my worst day, when it is clear that I am utterly, fallibly human, Jesus knows just what it is like.

And I want to focus on things like peace, joy, love, hope, and faith. Heavenly things. I want to share those things with others who need them. Normal, broken people.

I want to take time with friends and family. I want to bake cookies and sip peppermint mochas at Starbucks.

I want to wish you every joy that faith brings.

If you’ve been reading my blog for the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably picked up on the stress I’ve been under. I am not interested in airing the details but let’s just say that it has to do with a conflict that I didn’t know how to resolve.

In the past days, some wise colleagues have pointed myself, and others involved in the conflict, to the Bible. Specifically to the Matthew 18 verses on how Christians are to resolve conflict. Basically – Jesus says – we are called to talk to each other face-to-face. If we are not able to resolve it ourselves, we are called to invite others into the conversation (not yelling match, mind you, but respectful conversation). And then, if necessary, we are to invite the church – the body of believers – to help discern how to resolve it.

The scriptures tell us how we are meant to deal with each other. We are called to be generous in our dealings with each other. We are called to remember that we are all children of God. Each of us bears the image of the Almighty and each of us is one that Christ found worthy of his sacrifice.

We are called to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. None of this is easy, but it IS the way of love. And when we have the courage to do what the Bible calls us to do – we find that there really is something to it. God’s way really IS the best way.

I would appreciate your prayers. Pray that I will have the grace to do what the Bible would have me do. Pray that others in my community of faith would have the same. Pray that this way of love would reach out into the community that surrounds us and mend the brokenness in our world.