Month: December 2012

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
                 
                 
Prepare the way of the Lord;
           make straight a path for God.
                       —Luke 3.4

In this Advent season we prepare outwardly for Christmas: we hang lights and put up decorations, we bake goodies and wrap gifts. How will you prepare inwardly? The coming of Christ means that God will be incarnate: embodied, lovingly present, in the flesh in your life. Christ is coming into your life, into your heart, in a new way. Advent is a time to prepare a way for that to happen. God enters our lives without our planning or arranging; yet there are ways we can open the doors, and as the carol says of Jesus, “prepare him room.”

Imagine that Jesus were actually coming to live with you. What would you want to do to prepare? What would you change? Well, Jesus is coming to live with you, so change it! What is one way you will prepare for his coming? What is one thing you will do this Advent to make it easier for God to be a part of your conscious living? Maybe you will devote a few more minutes a day to prayer than you do, or reach out to someone hurting, or advocate for justice. Maybe you will devote yourself to a new kind of gift-giving, or give to someone who actually really needs it.

Don’t decide right now. Give this some time. Sit with this a while, meditate on it, and let the Spirit suggest a response. Then commit to preparing a way, making a straight path for God to enter your life in a new way.
                 
                 
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         I am confident that the one who began a good work in you
         will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
                  —Philippians 1.6

God has begun a miraculous thing in you.
Beneath the matted tangles of your unbelief,
within the brittle shell of Impossibility,
in the dark deep within you,
there it is,
a star in the velvet silence,
a seed in the hard earth,
a child in the virgin’s womb.

Give up trying to guess what’s in the package.
Let go of wanting to see it first before you accept it.
Stop pretending you’re unworthy.
It’s God’s delight to give you this gift.

Meditate on the mystery
of the secretly growing blessing within you.

Like Mary, simply say,
“May it be for me according to your Word.”

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com