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

Thanksgiving: Moving from Distraction to Gratefulness

Mississippi River

“O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalm 34:8

A Million Miles Away
How often we are distracted! Although physically we may be present in one location, mentally we can be a million miles away. We live in an unsettled society where everyone is preoccupied and anxious. Driver all around us swerve and nearly veer off the road—they are distracted with sending a text message or talking on the phone. They are preoccupied with everything but driving!

It is not only the “other guy,” however, who is not present to the moment. We too are engrossed with reviewing our to-do list, arguing with someone in our mind, or worrying about the future. In the midst of all this distraction, we are so often anything but present. And—if we are honest with ourselves—in our preoccupation, we are anything but grateful.

Practice of Place
That is why it is so important to continually come back to the present. Only in the present can I truly appreciate all that God has given me. Only in the here and now do I see his goodness. Only in the present moment will I take time to thank God.

One practice that I have observed the past couple of months is the “Practice of Place.” Throughout the day I ask myself the simple question: Where are you? That question breaks into my day and interrupts my preoccupation. Drawing me back from my mental wanderings, it locates my attention right here right now.

Once I’m in the present, I begin to notice what is around me: the rolling hills of the farmland on my drive home from work, beautiful flowers or colored leaves, our warm home. In the present moment I remember family and friends who are a blessing in my life. It is in the reality of place that I am able to let go of my anxious thoughts of tomorrow in order to appreciate the blessings of today.

Thanksgiving
In that fresh realization of the many blessings that surround me, I find that gratefulness rises in my heart. Gratitude replaces anxiety and any number of other preoccupied thoughts in my mind.

As we approach Thanksgiving this year, I am making the Practice of Place a part of my daily rhythm. Breaking into all the business and activity of the day, I am asking myself: Where am I? What do I see? During meals, I ask myself: What do I smell and what do I taste? Instead of rushing through the food set before me, I take time to enjoy it, appreciate it and express thanks for it.

Each time I come back to the present, I find something to be ever so thankful for. In this way I also hope to make thanksgiving more than simply one day focused on expressing thanks to the Lord, but rather to cultivate a grateful heart through the other 364 days of the year.

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Practices of the Present Moment: Glimpses of God's Glory

Mississippi River, St. Paul

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries
And daub their faces unaware. “ -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

When we slow down and become present to the present moment, we get glimpses of God’s glory. How often we all walk past brilliantly colored flowers and beautiful sunsets without even realizing they are there. We miss the rays of God’s brilliance all around us.

Psalm 19 tells us that creation reveals God’s radiance to the whole earth. Without a word, the Lord’s splendor shines forth:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
    It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
   like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

Practices of the Present Moment
This fall I am practicing the spiritual discipline of spying God’s glory. Throughout the day I am looking for glimpses of his greatness manifest in big and little events all around me. I am especially attending to creation all about me, and I am seeing with fresh eyes.

Along with the spiritual rhythm of spying God’s glory, I am responding in praise. When I truly see the glory of creation and God’s brilliance shining through it, I cannot help but break into praise of the Almighty!

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Feast of St. Francis: Repentance—Forsaking Self for the Service of Others

Top of Mt. Laverna, Italy

“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. . . . So then, you will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 6:16-20, NASB)

Today is the feast of St. Francis. A popular saint, Francis is so accessible—so real—that people in the thirteen century as well as today can identify with him. He is also a phenomenal example of genuine repentance—turning from worldly ways to a life committed 100% to the love of God.

Born to a wealthy merchant family in the Italian city of Assisi, Francis grew up enjoying a life of comfort and pleasure. He loved stylish clothes and used to wear the newest silk fashions that his father brought back from Paris. Throwing parties for his friends, Francis exemplified the life of revelry.

That all changed, however, through a number of trials that hit him as he entered his twenties. Through war, imprisonment and sickness, God got his attention, leading Francis to repent from his self-focused ways in order to commit his life completely to the Lord.

From Silks to Simplicity
When Francis turned to God, it was genuine. He forwent stylish clothes, silks and the sumptuous life in order to follow a life of simplicity. He gave up partying and wasteful living. As Matthew 3:8 commands, Francis produced “fruit in keeping with [his] repentance.” Wearing a coarse, brown robe tied with a simple rope for a belt, Francis’ garb is still recognized today.

From Self to Service
St. Francis’ repentance ran much deeper than his choice of clothes. Money that had previously been spent on his own pleasure and vanity was now employed to help those in need. Feeding the poor, clothing the outcasts and comforting the sick—especially those dying of leprosy—St. Francis poured his life out for others.

From the Soft Life to Suffering
Ultimately St. Francis moved from the soft life of comfort to a very hard life. Over the next twenty years he periodically spent weeks of solitude and prayer—not spent in a comfortable retreat center (which is where I tend to go)—but rather he and the men around him went “wilderness camping,” as it were, in very rugged terrain. Both at Celia in the mountain ravine outside of Assisi and the rocky rough country high on Mount Laverna (photo above), St. Francis met God in the wilderness, as Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist and Jesus did centuries ago.

Likewise, working day and night to tend the lepers and preach the gospel across Italy and beyond, St. Francis poured his life out as an offering for the sake of others (Philippians 2:17). Having spent himself, he died young at the age of 44 or 45 on the evening of October 3, 1226.

Model for Us
St. Francis is a wonderful model of radical repentance. Reaching down to the root level of his life—and use of money—St. Francis’ turn from worldly ways was demonstrated by his passionate love for the Lord and by his self-less service of his neighbor.

Today is a marvelous opportunity to celebrate his life, thank God for the renewal he brought to the church, and learn from his visible example of turning from the obsession with material comforts and possessions to the genuine pursuit of God.

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Reflections from the North Land: Meeting God in Creation

Lake Superior

O Lord, our Lord,  how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
 above the heavens. . . .
When I consider your heavens,
 the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
 which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
 the son of man that you care for him? . . .
O Lord, our Lord,
 how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8)

Get Out into God’s Creation
Out in God’s creation, we can see his glory in new ways. That brings fresh perspective to all of life. Most of us fail to take time to truly consider the heavens, the work of his fingers. But when we do, we see God in his majesty. We also see our own problems in proper perspective—seldom are they as all-consuming as they seem to us.

Walking with the Lord
Last evening was absolutely beautiful—crisp air, bright sunshine and a light breeze. Sharon and I worked in our garden. That was so refreshing!

From the beauty of the garden in our back yard to the glory of hiking in the Alps to watching the sun set over Lake Superior (above), I have had some of my most memorable times with the Lord in the glory of creation. Genesis 3:8 tells us that Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God “as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” Like Adam must have strolled with God in the evening breezes around the first Garden, I love walking and talking with the Lord outdoors.

As beautiful fall weather has arrived, I am making it a priority to get out into the sunshine and fresh air as often as possible. Whether working in our garden or walking in the woods, it is such an opportunity to enjoy God’s presence and glory!



© 2013 Glenn E. Myers