Dear APUMC Family,
Do you remember playing ‘hide and seek’ as a kid? Which did you prefer…to be the one hiding or the one seeking?
There is a ritual in that game that seems appropriate for this first week in Advent. It is the counting…1, 2, 3, 4, 5…and then the final announcement: ready or not, here I come!
That seems to be what the prophets are telling us about this long-expected Jesus. Isaiah and John the Baptist are not all that concerned if your tree is up yet, or if you made the most out of your Black Friday shopping, or whether you are particularly satisfied with this year’s Christmas card picture.
To be sure, there are plenty of things to be done in preparation for our Christmas festivities, but the most formative tasks of our spirits are not always captured so well on our social media posts.
We all know it is easy to be caught up in an overly commercialized Christmas season. By now, our consumer culture has learned all too well how to pull our strings and push our buttons. But other than reprogramming our favorite radio stations for the next month, what is a child of God to do?
Such decisions are not necessarily clear to us without effort. They do require some intentionality on our part. For instance, I have a “to-do-list” that I made for myself some years ago. It stays under the glass on my desk here at the church office. I keep it there to make sure I read it every day. The list was inspired one morning while praying through the prophecy of Zechariah in Luke 1:68-77.
I find this list helps me in every season, but especially in Advent. I gladly and humbly share it with you for your own devotion, reflection, and preparation, or as encouragement to listen for the Holy Spirit in creating your own.
SLOW DOWN
SEE GOOD
SPEAK TRUTH
SHARE GRACE
SHOW MERCY
SERVE FEARLESSLY
GIVE LIGHT
GUIDE FEET
GO IN PEACE
If you sit with Zechariah’s words, you may agree that this is the vision that God has–not just for his messenger, John–but for all of us who are called to share the good news of what God is doing in the world…thy kingdom come, thy will be done, ON EARTH as it is in heaven.
This is the work of our witness, friends, and the opportunities to shine the light of Jesus are all around us, even when skies are gray!
This week, for example, we have decided to postpone the “Love the Locals" Food Drive and Music Festival at the Dumas Wesley Community Center due to the weather forecast, but that decision opened the door for us to shift gears and instead throw a “Finals Week Study Break Jambalaya Party” for students at the University of South Alabama this Sunday afternoon.
It’s going to be great! Would you like to participate in this love offering? Several of our newest members are leading this charge, with an eye for sharing more of our Church with our community. As new college graduates, they want more of their friends to become your friends, and vice versa. They love their new church home and want to share it with others. These young people are bridge builders. Rather than counting the days for some long-awaited invitation or opportunity to connect, they have the good faith and passion to say, ready or not, here we come!
How great is that?
By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace (Luke 1:78-79),
I hope to see you this Sunday. The music will surely be magnificent.
O Come all ye faithful…and the unfaithful, too!
Darren