Third Sunday of Advent—Gaudete Sunday—Hope and Rejoicing!

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

     -James 1:17 (NASB)

Crisp, clear—the sun crests over the eastern horizon this frosty morning, its rays glistening on the snow-graced earth. The sun brings a song of rejoicing to my heart. Its light reflects the Father of lights, in whom there is no turning or shadow. It gives us hope of longer days, stronger sunshine and, in time, warmer weather now not far away.

We are in mid-December as we approach this, the third Sunday of Advent. For centuries the church has call this Gaudete Sunday—Rejoice Sunday! On the advent wreath we have a special rose-colored candle to symbolize our jubilation.

We rejoice as we look forward to the celebration of Christmas, our Savior’s birth, just more than a week away now. Just as the sun is rising this morning with light and warmth and hope in its rays, Jesus arises afresh in our lives with healing in his wings:

"But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.” (Malachi 4:2, NLT)

At any point in life we have sorrows and joys, some situations going well and others seeking to overwhelm us. Whatever our circumstances right now, we can rejoice. Our God is Light and in him is no darkness (1 John 1:5). Even if the sunshine is not shining for us any given day, there is a cause to rejoice. Just as the Sun of Righteousness rose in history some two thousand years ago, he will rise afresh in our given life situation. We have hope.

This is Advent Hope and Advent Rejoicing! This is what Gaudete Sunday is all about!

© 2018 Glenn E. Myers

Advent: Tutoring Us in the Art of Waiting

Advent tutors us in the art and virtue of waiting. Waiting does not come easily to any of us. Especially during the holiday season, any idea of waiting is discarded. Stores pipe in Christmas carols from Thanksgiving Day (or earlier) to Christmas, to put shoppers in the mood to buy. Marketers do not want anyone to hesitate but rather to buy on impulse.

In direct opposition to this atmosphere of having it all—and having it right now—spiritual growth comes slowly. Our faith is built through the gradual year-in and year-out walking faithfully with our God and being faithful to him during exciting times and difficult times alike.

Indeed the Greek word for faith, pistos, means both faith (believing and trusting) and faithfulness (remaining constant and true). We often see these as two separate ideas. However, in the Christian life they are inextricably linked. To believe in Christ is to entrust one’s life to him as Lord and to walk faithfully with him, hand-in-hand, during good times and bad.

Sometimes we experience growth spurts or seasons when we sense God’s presence so close. However, in between times of marked spiritual growth or mountain top experiences, “faith can demand long, patient waiting, when nothing seems to be happening, and this is just as necessary to growth,” writes Maria Boulding. Recently I read this quote and realized how true it is! Often our deepest growth takes place during those long times of just being faithful in the mundane things of life.

Maria Boulding then ties this idea of faithfulness with Advent. “We sometimes have to go on doing the small, ordinary things while we wait for God, as Mary did while she waited for the birth of Jesus; we have to wait for his moment, and wait for his work to ripen in ourselves. It may sometimes be more fruitful in the end if we live with a lingering question, and grow slowly towards wisdom, than if we find a quick answer partly dictated by our own desires. The waiting changes us, schools us, teaches us to know God.”

Advent this year—and life in general—is teaching me to wait. I want to love the questions in my life right now. As I linger with those questions and remain faithful in all the little responsibilities of life, God will bring about the growth and the end results that he desires. Let me not try to prematurely answer the questions only to end up simply following my own will. Rather, let me like Mary, respond to the Lord: Here I am, your servant, let it be done to me according to your word (Luke 1:38).

Maria Boulding, The Coming of God (Conception, MO: The Printery House, Conception Abbey, Inc., 2000), 40-41.

© 2018 Glenn E. Myers

Advent: An Invitation to Stillness

      

              The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
 He leads me beside still waters.
     He restores my soul.”

-Psalm 23:2-3 (ESV)

Advent invites us into stillness. Away from the multiplicity of demands, opportunities and people, our mind begins to slow down. Many, if not most, of those opportunities and relationships that we set aside for a time are good: we were created to live full lives in this world. However, if they are only one side of the rhythmic pendulum of a whole, healthy life. One side swings into the many-faceted activity and interaction of the day. Then it swings back into solitude, silence and stillness—the time necessary to be alone with self and God. Just as day and night alternate, so we are created to flow out and back: flowing out to the manifold interactions of the world and then back into stillness.

The whole of contemporary society militates against such a practice of stillness and simplicity. Constantly multitasking, we try to squeeze more and more into the hours of the day. Employers want greater productivity out of us. Organizations and churches offer programs and activities to keep us occupied. Sports and media present unending opportunities to be entertained. Advertisers promise us greater gratification in life if we but buy more of their products. While none of these may be innately evil, as a whole the world system distracts us and allures us with a false assurance of genuine purpose and fulfillment in life.

Into such frantic busyness and multiplicity our Shepherd bids us follow him to green pastures where we can lie down and rest. The gentle waters of a stream welcome us to come and be restored—body, soul and spirit. A large shade tree welcomes us to stop running long enough to enjoy the Creator’s blessings freely offered to us. The song of a nearby bird extends an invitation to retreat from the fragmentation of our busy world for a while and step into simplicity.

Stillness does not come spontaneously to the human heart. Since the Fall in Genesis 3, we are worried and anxious about so many things. Jesus points us to nature to gain a different picture of what life could be like. “Look at the birds of the air,” instructs Jesus; “they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:26-27).

Stillness must be cultivated. The more often we practice stillness, the more we are able to carry it with us throughout the day. Even when things get hectic, we are able to access that still place within and find peace.

Advent is a season to cultivate such stillness. Whether it be a devotional time each evening of the four Advent Sundays or a day’s retreat, we are invited to still ourselves and prepare our hearts for Christ’s fresh coming into our lives.

© 2018 Glenn E. Myers

Third Sunday of Advent: From Fragmentation to Holy Wholeness

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” -Hebrews 13:8

Advent points us to the past, present and future.

First, the four weeks leading up to the Nativity focus our attention on the event of the Incarnation some 2000 years ago. The Son of God, the Logos, came to earth and took on flesh—as a fetus in Mary’s womb, developing and growing until Mary was “great with child” as she rode the donkey en route to Bethlehem with her finance Joseph.

Advent likewise points us to the future. Christ not only came to earth as a baby those two millennia ago, he will return at the end of the age as King of kings and Lord of lords. The time-space world in which we live has a telos—a goal, fulfillment, completion—toward which the centuries run. God will roll up the heavens and earth “like a robe; like a garment they will be changed” (Hebrews 1:12). We will receive a new heavens and earth, beyond our earthly language to describe. We will join the wedding feast of the Son and be joined forever with Christ, our Bridegroom.

Between these two advents of Christ, we exist today. Just as Jesus broke into the past and will come again with surprise in the future, he wants to break into our everyday lives. He is Emmanuel—God with us—in our human existence. We must live in light of Christ’s present-day presence, else we will be consumed by the materialism of the world and cave in on ourselves in self-focused preoccupation. The secular shopping season contributes all the more to the material fixation that steals our attention from active and living presence among us.

We must resist the temptation of materialism, however, in order to find our meaning by discovering our place in the larger Story. The past anchors us in the concrete events of God’s redemptive act of salvation as we celebrate the Incarnation. The future offers us hope as we wait for the consummation of this age and the consummation of the wedding feast of Christ as we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

The present, then, is a time of both remembering and waiting. Such is the message of Advent. He is here with us, as he promised, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). The season of Advent tutors us in how to live during this time. It attunes us to God’s divine action and his desire to come into the ups and downs of our earthly existence. We embrace the here and now, discovering the divine in the midst of daily life.

This Advent season we can ask ourselves: How is Jesus breaking into our day? Where is his glory filling the earth? How is he Emmanuel right here and right now?

Such a three-fold focus is difficult to maintain; it can even be unsettling. However, we must not neglect any of the three: past, present or future. Advent instructs us as it helps us to integrate all three into a meaningful whole—not only the overview of the ages but also a personal reality for each of us existentially. By juxtaposing past and future, Advent calls us to wait in present. Advent causes us to see Salvation History as a whole, and, doing so, helps to make our lives more whole as it invites us to see how our lives fit in.

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

Second Sunday of Advent: From Impatience to Holy Waiting

        

           “Wait for the Lord;

      be strong and take heart

     and wait for the Lord.”       

            -Psalm 27:14

Waiting. No one that I know likes to wait. Whether it is standing in a long checkout line during Christmas shopping or finding oneself stuck in a traffic jam, we usually find ourselves in a waiting situation much against our plans. If possible, we try to distract ourselves while the minutes tick away—texting being the most common method these days. If we are not able to find a suitable distraction, we simply go numb. Waiting, so often, is what we do against our will.

But what if waiting were a spiritual activity? What if waiting turned out to be God’s plan for our lives—not only for character development but for greater purposes than we are aware of at the time?

This is holy waiting. As well as cultivating patience in our lives, holy waiting molds us into God’s timing and purposes. Advent is a wonderful opportunity for such waiting. By following the church calendar we step out of the rush of our contemporary culture—with all its materialism and catering to immediate desires—and enter a holy rhythm. That rhythm of the church year begins the first Sunday of Advent, which continues for three more Sundays, preparing our hearts as we anticipate Christmas.

Instead of an instant but shallow satisfaction of singing Christmas carols on the first Sunday of Advent, we are called to again take the journey to Bethlehem, asking God to do whatever work he chooses in us in order to form us for fresh inner growth. The four-week wait of Advent stirs longing deep within us, so we appreciate the coming of Emmanuel on a whole new level.

Waiting is not easy. Our natural passions want fulfillment as soon as possible. Waiting enables us to deny those desires—at least for a time—so that our attention can move from the material to spiritual, from the outward-ness of our existence to the inner life of the soul. 

This Advent invites you and me to holy waiting. Will we embrace the discomfort to waiting in order to grow deeper in faith? Will we step away from busy distraction into a holy rhythm of anticipating Christ’s coming afresh into our lives?

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

First Sunday of Advent: From Ordinary Time to Holy Time

Advent—the arrival of something new.

The four Sundays leading up to the feast of Christ’s birth are set aside to prepare our hearts for the arrival of the Son of God come to earth—Emmanuel, God with us. Historically this event took place some 2000 years ago, but we are invited to participate afresh in our Lord’s coming, as we join Christians around the world and over the centuries to observe Advent each year. We have the opportunity to personalize the events of holy history—Heilsgeschichte—as we prepare our hearts anew to embrace the Lord in our lives.

The first Sunday of Advent moves us from ordinary time into holy time. Two-thirds of the church year are lived in ordinary time. That is as it should be—for the majority of life is lived with daily chores, normal jobs and school, and commonplace pleasures and challenges of existence. We serve the Lord in everyday relationships and responsibilities. We love God and others through our unnoticed faithfulness to our calling in life.

With the upcoming first Sunday of Advent, however, we move into holy time—“holy days” that have often become in our culture mere “holidays.” Yet, we can reclaim their significance in the life of faith. We can regain their original purpose in this season of the church.

“Holy”—Latin “sanctus”—means to set aside or consecrate to God. Rather than simply a season for shopping, Advent is a time set aside for the Lord. These weeks are an opportunity for us to recommit ourselves to lives of faith, focused on our relationship with our loving Creator. They are an invitation to prepare our hearts for a fresh encounter with Christ—the Eternal Logos, God’s Word—who condescended to come into our world, our lives, our suffering, our struggle with sin, our shame, our human situation.

As we enter Advent, we move out of mere chronological time—that simply ticks by the minutes, hours and days—and we step into kairos time. The Greek term kairos refers to the appointed time for something. As Galatians 5:6 asserts, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Advent is the appointed time for dedicating ourselves anew to the Lord. Advent is the appointed time for setting aside some special time of devotion, whether a weekend retreat, a daily devotional or some extra time of silent listening to God. Advent is the appointed time for stillness, stepping back from the bustle of buying gifts and baking cookies to still our hearts. Advent is the appointed time for attentive waiting, as we anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth on Christmas day.

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

Journeying with Mary toward Bethlehem: Advent Breathless Anticipation

Mary knew: her body told her,

She was about to deliver.

It would not be long now

Until the Baby would be born.

Soon contractions would begin,

Mother breathless in labor.

At the thought of her Baby,

Mary even now breathless with expectation.

Mary’s imminent delivery:

Deliverance for the world!

God’s deliverance from slavery

To sin, to Satan, to self.

Such deliverance from on high:

Each of us needs today.

Setting us free from self

Releasing us from bondage.

Many things hold us in chains:

We pretend they are not there,

Yet we know we need help

From Jesus to set us free.

Mary’s soon delivery:

Deliverance for us all.

With Mary we now wait,

With breathless expectation!

  

© 2016 Glenn E. Myers

Journeying with Mary toward Bethlehem: Advent Hope

The road to Bethlehem was long,

Bumpy, dusty, tiring.

Nine months pregnant,

Mary uncomfortable and exhausted.

Weariness faded the memory

Of Gabriel’s visit,

Of God’s promise,

Of the purpose for this all.

Now it was pure stamina,

Discipline to stay focused.

Obedience keeps saying “yes,”

Fortitude, pure and simple.

But behind such endurance

Lay hope—divine hope.

God’s Spirit traveled with Mary,

Albeit hid in the dust from the road.

God’s Spirit journeys with us too,

As we walk beside Mary.

We follow in obedience,

Persevering in spiritual pilgrimage.

Even if we cannot feel it,

Hope within disappoints not.

God’s plans still stand firm,

Buoying us up in hope!

© 2016 Glenn E. Myers

Journeying with Mary toward Bethlehem: Advent Secret

What were the rumors?

Mary pregnant without husband:

Joseph must be blamed,

Or perhaps it was another.

Did such words hurt her

As she and Joseph traveled south?

Seeking Bethlehem,

Was she ostracized and shamed?

Yet held in her heart,

Mary had a secret from God:

Her child was holy,

From the Holy Spirit Divine.

Mary spoke in faith:

“Behold the servant of the Lord,

Be it done to me,

According to God’s promised word.”

As Advent moves on

We travel along with Mary,

Sharing in her secret:

God mysteriously at work.

Then we join her prayer:

“Here I am, the Lord God’s servant,

Be it done to me,

According to God’s promised word!”

© 2016 Glenn E. Myers

Journeying with Mary toward Bethlehem: Advent Expectation

Mary expecting,

Her womb great with child.

Pregnant with her firstborn,

God’s Only Begotten Son.

Mary’s heart full of expectation:

She would be a mother!

What will it be like to give birth?

How will she rear the Son of God?

Soon to travel toward Bethlehem,

The city of David, Joseph’s ancestor.

How will the trip go?

Where will I deliver?

Expectation of good,

Mixed with apprehension.

She prepares for Bethlehem,

For the birth of the Christ child.

This Advent we join Mary

Along a bumpy road,

Many unanswered questions,

Yet hearts full of expectation.

These four weeks we move forward,

Co-traveling to Bethlehem,

Expectation of new life for each of us,

Opening ourselves afresh to New Birth!

© 2016 Glenn E. Myers

Advent Preparation: John the Baptist: Luke 3

 

And the crowds asked him [John the Baptist], “What then should we do?” He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?” He told them, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.”

-Luke 3:10-14 (NABRE)

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus by preaching to crowds who came to him in the wilderness to be baptized. He warned them not to think that just because they were descendants of Abraham and Sarah that they would be part of the Kingdom of God, which was being inaugurated. Instead, they needed to repent. People from all walks of life—even tax collectors and soldiers—responded with an earnest question: What do we need to do for genuine repentance?

As we arrive at the third Sunday in Advent, we continue to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus afresh in our lives this Christmas. John the Baptist’s words hit us hard over two millennia after they were first spoken in the Judean desert. If we want to walk in God’s Kingdom—God’s reign in our lives—we cannot glibly say we are part of God’s family—descendants of Abraham, as the Jews assumed in their day. Rather, we need to repent of any action, attitude, or inaction that fails to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength, or fails to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27).

“What then should we do?” We likewise need to ask this question afresh for our life situation. Like John’s audience, some of us need to share much more from our abundance with those in need. Some of us need stop bullying others, or taking what is unfair—even if we can get away with it.

As I read the Scriptures this morning, I became convicted when reading Philippians 4:4-5 “Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice. Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand” (ASV). Sometimes I get so tired of being forbearing and patient. Especially the last few weeks, there are a few times when I wasn’t forbearing or gentle or kind. What then should I do to repent? I need to heed Paul’s words to rejoice in the Lord in all circumstances, even when yea one more car pushes me on the highway. I need to cultivate a forbearing, gentle, patient spirit for others to see—and even when no one is looking. I need to cling to hope: the Lord is at hand!

As we prepare this Advent, let us listen to John the Baptist’s call to repentance. Let each of us ask the question: What then should I do right now in my life and in my circumstances?

© 2015 Glenn E. Myers

Advent Candle

Photo: "Adventný veniec I." by Bubamara. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Light and warmth radiate from the advent candle, illuminating the evergreen ring of the advent wreath. So commences another Advent—a New Beginning!

                These four weeks of preparation are important in our spiritual life. Autumn is always a time of loss—trees lose their beautiful leaves to stand as bare skeletons against the bleak winter sky. Daylight loses hours to darkness, both morning and evening. The warmth of summer and early fall fades to the chill of November and even colder months ahead. The northland loses sight of green grass and sound of bird as it braces for the hard onset of winter. Our hearts remember loved ones we have lost and years that are no more.

                Yet, just as the small flame of a candle cuts through the darkness, Advent breaks into all the losses of our lives. Not simply doomed to an endless cycle of time and seasons, we see the flicker of hope. God is about to break into an ordinary night of shepherds watching their sheep and animals eating hay from a manger.

                As the first Advent candle is lit, so begins the fresh hope of a new church year. So begins our vigil and preparation for the celebration of Christ’s the birth, Immanuel—God with us. He is the “rising sun [who] will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness” (Luke 1:78-79).

                Advent—New Beginning! Light to warm our hearts and illumine our way! Let us enter this season with open hands and a receptive spirit, ready to rest in the glow of the Advent candle, radiating the hope and promise of God come to earth to be with us!

© 2015 Glenn E. Myers

Advent: Longing for the Light

Although I love the change of seasons, Minnesota winters can be long and hard. Minus 30 degrees pierces many a layer of clothing, and the blanket of white for five months leaves one longing to see just one patch of grass again come April.

Hardest of all for me, however, is the lack of light. The higher the latitude, the longer the winter darkness. Every year I brace myself for the dark months of November, December and January. During this long gray season, whenever the sun is shining outside I try to get out for a few minutes’ walk if the temperature is above zero. But many days I go to work in the dark and return in the dark, hardly seeing the sun.

Advent

Into these dark months comes Advent. The beginning of the church year, Advent affirms my longing for light. It embraces the empty place in my heart and redirects the inner pining of my soul toward the Uncreated Light of God. My natural need for brightness and color uncovers my deeper longing for “the true light that gives light to everyone [who] was coming into the world” (John 1:9 TNIV).

This One, whose coming into the world we celebrate soon, is:

God from God, Light from Light,

True God from true God,

begotten, not made,

one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven:

by the power of the Holy Spirit

he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,

and was made man. (Nicene Creed)

Yes, Uncreated Light came crashing into our desperate, dark world!

Pilgrimage

Advent, then, is our celebration of the weeks leading up to Jesus’ nativity. It is our participation in this cosmic Drama of Salvation. We join with Mary and Joseph as we move toward the birth of the Savior.

More than a reenactment, however, Advent is a pilgrimage for each one of us here and now. Although Christ came into the world two millennia ago—and although he has come into our hearts—there are still rooms of our lives where his light needs to shine. There are lonely places only he can fill.

As we journey through Advent, longing for physical light, let us allow that deeper yearning to draw us ever forward toward a fresh encounter at Bethlehem. Every time we find ourselves looking out the window during these weeks of Advent—heaving a sigh for springtime, green-ness and light—let us channel that earthly ache into the spiritual yearning that it reflects.

By doing so, the dark days of December are transformed into a personal pilgrimage that moves toward a new encounter with Christ. Focus is turned toward Immanuel. We wait with expectation as we look longingly toward the horizon of the dark northern sky and anticipate the coming of the Light of the World! 

               2014 © Glenn E. Myers

White as Snow: Last Sunday of Advent before Christmas

Carver Park, Minnesota

"Come now, let us reason together,"
    says the Lord.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
    they shall be like wool."
-Isaiah 1:18

This is what Advent anticipates. This is God's love poured forth on Christmas!

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Advent Anticipation and Hope

Crown College

Advent is a time of anticipation and hope. It is not by accident that Advent begins the new church calendar each year. We begin that yearly cycle of remembering Christ’s life with the anticipation of his birth.

As we do so corporately as the Church, we also become aware individually of the ache in our hearts where we are waiting for God to move on our behalf. Each of us is waiting for one answer or another in our life. Sometimes that waiting is so long that we give up hope that an answer will ever come.

In many ways, we are challenged to wait like children often wait for the excitement of Christmas morning. They know something exciting is inside those beautifully wrapped packages. In like manner, we are called to wait with anticipation and expectation. This is a hopeful waiting. This is a joyful expectancy of something good—very good.

Of course, sometimes children are disappointed when they finally are free to rip open the colorful paper to see what they have been given. However, in the spiritual life we do not need to brace ourselves for disappointment. Jesus revealed God as a loving heavenly Father who delights in giving to his children. While we may not always receive what we thought we were getting, God’s gift is always good!

“O, taste and see that the Lord is good!” –Psalm 34:8

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Advent: Active Waiting

King's House Retreat Center

“Wait for the Lord;
Be strong, and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.”
-Psalm 27:14 (NASB)

Advent
Advent is a season of waiting. On the surface, it is the period of time preceding the fun, family and gifts of Christmas day. On a communal level, it is the church universal anticipating the celebration of Christ’s birth. On a personal level, it is a season to get in touch with our profound spiritual hunger and the needs in our lives.

We are all waiting for God to move in one way or another in our lives. For each of us, that need may be different. However, we each have situations that will not be resolved unless God intervenes, hurts that cannot be healed unless the Great Physician reaches our broken hearts, and answers that shall never come apart from a divine response.

The season of advent puts us in touch with our ongoing need for God. In reality, however, we do not always want to realize those empty chasms inside. It is much easier to live life on a surface level or to allow our hearts to go numb. But such shallow, anesthetized existence is not the life we are called to in Christ.

Active Waiting
Instead, as Christians, we are called to live a life in light of the Incarnation—God crashing into the difficulties of this world by taking on human flesh. Christmas is the celebration of Emmanuel—God with us in the midst of all of life’s contingencies.

Therefore we are invited to an active waiting in which our eyes are fixed on God as our hope, and our hearts are riveted to his promises.

When Scripture describes waiting for God, it is not a passive, “ho hum” waiting. It is not an apathetic waiting of indifference. Rather, we are invited to wait actively, with our heart engaged and our energies focused on God. Psalm 84:1-2 resounds with such anticipatory yearning for the Lord’s presence:

“How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.”

Seeking
This is advent waiting! As we recognize the deep needs in our lives and the profound yearning in our spirits, we must do something about it. We do so by intentionally seeking the Lord. Seeking “puts legs,” as it were, on our waiting.

If we seek him with our whole heart, God promises that we will indeed find him. As he promised to his people in Jeremiah 19:13-14: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.”

Rather than ignoring our hearts’ longing or numbing it with endless activity and shopping for more “stuff,” let us set aside extra time for waiting on God this advent. That could be through following an advent calendar and reading its daily Scripture passages. It could consist of going on an advent retreat. Or it could take the form of sitting quietly by candlelight in the evening, waiting and listening in silence.

This Advent
Longing is spiritual atmosphere of advent. This season is the time to stir afresh the inner yearning for the Lord. Whatever means it might be, let us not rush through the season of advent on our way to the celebration of Christmas. If we do, Christmas will seem superficial and we will miss most of its spiritual significance.

Rather, let us wait for the Lord this advent and allow our hearts to ache for a more profound encounter with him. Let us seek him with our whole heart. If we do so, we will experience his coming afresh and come to know him on a deeper level than ever before.

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Advent and Christmas Devotion: The Prayer of Desire – Si semper desideras, semper oras

Christ the King Retreat Center

Advent is a season of desire. When Jesus was born, the nation of Israel was waiting, longing and desiring the coming of Messiah. For us, is it a time to kindle anew our inner desire for more of Jesus in our lives, our minds, our busy schedules, and our hearts.

That desire during Advent is what continually draws us to Bethlehem. While Mary and Joseph journeyed to the City of David for very practical reasons, fulfilling the census of Caesar Augustus, we journey there for a spiritual purpose to see afresh the Heir of David!

Just as the shepherds came down from the hills, filled with awe and wonder at the message of the angels, we descend to the lowly manger with deep desire to worship him who lowered himself and emptied himself beyond our comprehension.

As the magi were invited to glimpse the fulfillment of the great sign in the stars that they saw, we come to adore Emmanuel with all our longing, love and desire.

Desire Itself is Prayer
Sometimes we do not know how to pray. That is okay, because our desire for the Lord is itself prayer. St. Augustine said, “Si semper desideras, semper oras”—“If we are always desiring, we are always praying!” How true that is, and how comforting to know that our heart prays, even when our mouth cannot articulate that inner longing!

This season let our hearts reach out in the wordless prayer of desire as we sit silently by the fireplace or candles late at night or early in the morning when everyone else in the house is asleep. Let our prayer of desire ascend as we read again Luke’s account of the very first Christmas.

As the pilgrimage of Advent reaches its culmination in the celebration of Christmas Day, let us cultivate the inner prayer of desire. Let us allow that desire to come to full blossom as we gather with the faithful on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning to worship Christ the King. O come, let us indeed adore him!

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Advent: Facing East as We Await the Light

Christ the King Retreat Center

“For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:27)

A little-known fact to many Christians today is the practice of early believers facing east when they prayed. Of course as they sought to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), throughout the day, facing whatever direction they happened to be while they walked or worked or spent time with family, praying to the Lord in all their activity.

However, when the believers of the first centuries of the church went apart for specific times of prayer, they faced east. We read about this practice in many of the early Christian writings. Also archeological digs have discovered that the homes of the early believers in Egypt often had a room set aside for prayer which allowed the Christians to have solitude with the Lord as well as to focus toward the east in their devotional times. [1]

“Orienting” our Lives
The classic term for the “East” is the “Orient.” This term refers to all of the lands spreading from the Near East across Asia to the Far East. Coming from this term, to gain one’s bearings is to “orient” oneself. To know where the points of the compass are, we must know where the orient—the east—is.

Early Christians, then, oriented their prayer lives by praying while they faced east. The symbolism is powerful! First, the east is where the sun rises. So facing east faces us toward the light and invites us to orient our lives toward the eternal Light. “God is Light; in him there is no darkness at all,” states 1 John 1:5. Further, James reminds us that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down form the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (1:17).

Second, the Garden of Eden was in the east (Gen 2:8). As we face east we remind ourselves of the fellowship between God and humanity that was intended for us. Through the redemptive work of Christ, we too are invited to walk with God in the cool of the evening, as it were, and enjoy sweet communion with our Creator.

Third, Jesus’ life, passion and resurrection took place in Galilee and Judea, which are for most of us to the east. As we face east in our prayer, we remind ourselves that our salvation is based entirely on Christ Jesus.

Finally, facing east reminds us to fix our hope on Christ’s coming! “For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27). Orienting my body to the east each day helps me to orient my whole life to Christ’s return. His return is my ultimate hope and the culmination of all history! [2]

Advent: Reorienting Our Lives toward the Light
Although the calendar year does not begin until January, the new church year begins now with Advent. This makes sense: the whole of the Christian life starts with the anticipation of the celebration of our Lord’s birth.

Advent is an opportunity to reorient our lives. These four weeks leading up to the celebration of Christmas are an opportunity to regain our spiritual bearings. The Advent season is a time for longing for more of the Lord, seeking God afresh, as well as reordering and reorienting our lives toward Christ.

As Advent begins, some good reflect questions are: Although I claim to be a Christian, how is my life truly oriented? What direction is my life headed? Where am I doing well in my pilgrimage with the Lord and where have I lost my inner compass? Am I journeying with God as I claim to be, or have I become waylaid on a path that is leading in the wrong direction? What must I do to regain my orientation to the Lord?

Advent is a time of looking for the light. As I have my devotions during these dark mornings, I find myself spontaneously looking toward the eastern horizon, waiting and longing to see the first hint of light each morning. During these four weeks of Advent, the eyes of my heart in like manner look forward to the coming of the Light of the World!

[1] Gabriel Bunge, Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer According to the Patristic Tradition, trans. Michael J. Miller (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), p. 54.
[2] These thoughts on the east are adapted from Bunge, pp. 57-71.

© 2012 Glenn E. Myers

Advent Stillness: Listening to God's Still, Small Voice

When we slow down enough to become present to the moment, we make ourselves available to God. We become attentive to his voice. God is speaking to us—in our Scripture reading for the day, in a sermon we hear, in a friend’s word of correction. During times of solitude and silence, these words come back to our minds. God’s voice bubbles to the surface of our consciousness when we allow ourselves to become fully present.

Elijah’s Example
After Elijah’s intense ministry on Mount Carmel and dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal, he was physically and emotionally exhausted. It took him some time to rest, re-nourish and refocus before he could hear the voice of God. (See I Kings 17-19.)

Then Elijah traveled to the mountain of the Lord. There, sheltered in a cave, he went through a tempest on Mountain Horeb. The powerful wind shattered the rocks, the earth quaked, and the fire fell from heaven. But God was not in the storm—Elijah did not hear the Lord’s voice during all the dramatic events.

Finally, Elijah did hear God speak like a gentle wind, a gentle whisper. He went to the edge of the cave and heard the voice of the Lord in the still, small voice.

Noisy Storms
When our lives are filled with clanging and banging of activity and unresolved inner thoughts, we also cannot hear God’s voice. We are like Elijah in the midst of the earthquake, wind and fire—all we hear is the tempest.

“A gentle person hears God’s voice which a turbulent, angry person cannot hear,” states Johannes Tauler, “for when the wind rages and the windows and doors clatter, one cannot hear well. Do you desire to receive the Father’s hidden, heavenly word in you, which will be spoken in holy whispers to the innermost place in your soul? Then all turbulence in and around you must be eradicated, and you must become a gentle lamb—calm and serene. You must abandon all the storms in your life in order to listen for this beloved voice in gentle stillness.” [1]

Advent Stillness
Advent is a time of preparation as we move toward the celebration of Jesus’ birth. We make our hearts ready to accept more of what the Lord has for us. In reality, we make ourselves ready to receive more of the Lord himself.

In order to do so, we must make some space for quiet. We must cultivate stillness in our lives. When we do so—when we come into the “now” and become stilled inside—we make ourselves present to God. There, like Elijah, we can hear his voice in a brand new way.

[1] Johannes Tauler Predigten: Vollständige Ausgabe, edited by Georg Hofmann (Freiburg: Herder, 1961), p. 93.

© 2011 Glenn E. Myers

Advent: Season of Watching, Waiting and Transformation

“Come, thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee!”

Advent is a season for waiting. Since the early church, Christians have set aside the four weeks leading up to Christmas as a time of watching, waiting, and preparing our hearts to celebrate Christ’s birth.

Much spiritual growth takes place when we set aside a time intentionally to wait on God. We listen with fresh awareness of what he might want to address in our hearts. We watch for what he might be initiating in our lives. We attend to the still, small voice through which he often speaks in our souls.

Sometimes that spiritual growth is remarkable and immediate. Other times it is less noticeable, yet nonetheless real. He addresses a bad attitude that we have been harboring. He gives us a fresh glimpse of his Father’s love for us as a son or daughter. God plants a seed of hope in our hearts—a seed that may take months of years to grow and bear fruit.

Waiting Comes Hard to Us
Contemporary culture is one of the quick fix and immediate resolution. We satisfy our hunger at the drive through rather than take the time to enjoy a healthier, better meal. Even though the quality of food is lacking, we content ourselves far too easily with its convenience. We have lost the art—indeed the fruit of the Spirit—of waiting in patience.

In the same way, we settle for fluff in our spiritual lives. We allow ourselves to be satisfied with superficial change rather than pursuing a more profound encounter with the Living God. Charles Wesley’s advent hymn is an appropriate prayer during this season: “from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee!” We all harbor fears—although we often deny it. Most of us fear what others think about us. Some fear loneliness; others fear intimacy. We fear the future, and we fear failure. In short, we live fearful lives, even though as Christians we know we do not need to fear. Advent is a season to actively wait on God and ask him to silence the voice of fear within.

Advent is a time to invite God to refine our character and transform our hearts. To experience lasting, substantive change in our lives, we need to watch and pray. This is a season for active, whole-hearted waiting on God, looking to him to change what we cannot on our own power.

Tension
Waiting necessitates tension. If I am waiting for someone or something, I have positive expectation, on the one hand, and unmet expectation, on the other. This creates an inner tension within me. Until the wait is over, I have two opposing dynamics working inside of me.

Waiting is an integral part of much spiritual growth. We experience tension—and feel emptiness—that are a part of waiting. If we settle for an immediate resolution, opting for a quick, easy answer to our inner hunger, we forfeit the deeper fulfillment that comes only when a long-awaited desire is finally fulfilled.

Creative tension leads to genuine growth. God works in our hearts during this such times of discomfort—uncovering fear, exposing wrong priorities, and revealing disordered affections. He also works in positive ways—affirming his call in our lives, kindling genuine passion for his purposes and developing much-needed endurance.

Scripture
The Psalms are replete with accounts of those who had to wait years—even decades—as the Lord worked in their lives. David describes his waiting on God: “For you I wait all the day.” Such waiting comes with confidence, however: “Indeed, none of those who wait for you will be ashamed.” (Psalm 25:3, 5 NASB). David exhorts us to do likewise:

“Wait for the Lord;
Be strong, and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14 NASB)

Genuine waiting demands focus and emotional energy. When we are waiting for something we want, or waiting for our plans to work out, we become exhausted. However, when we are waiting on God we are renewed!

“Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength;
The will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tiered,
They will walk and not become weary.” (Isaiah 40:31 NASB)

This Advent
Advent is the season for waiting afresh on the Lord. Let us not lose this opportunity amid all the hustle and bustle. Instead, let us take the time and energy to wait on God. It will transform us. It will give us new focus and fresh strength that comes only from the Lord!

© 2010 Glenn E. Myers