Advent is a season of moving slowly from darkness into light. Each week a new candle on the Advent wreath is lit and a bit more light is shed. If the church were dark and the Advent wreath the only light, the effect would be that, week by week, we would see more and more of the church. The darkness would recede in stages to reveal the church as it is, for better or for worse.
It is an apt metaphor for the Christian walk. Slowly, in a process that can not be rushed, the nature of Christ is revealed throughout our lives. As we embrace the love of Christ more and more we see who we are, for better and for worse.
It is also a metaphor for church life. The longer you stay, the more you see of a church, for better or for worse. The church is made up of fallible people. People can create knots of contention and throw well aimed spears of rancor, but, likewise, people can create a nest of comfort for the wounded and protection to the weak in spirit. Amazingly, we can do it all at the same time. Our hope and prayer is that the better parts increase and the worse parts decrease.
Just as the light of Christ shines brighter and brighter as time moves forward in each individual life, so then the light of Christ will shine brighter in the aggregate of Christians that is the church. It is not magic. It may be mystical. It is definitely work. We each do not become a beacon of light by wishful thinking, though certainly thinking on those things which are good and holy is extolled in scripture. We do not incrementally increase the light of Christ in the world by being the best read or studying the most though those things add to the conviction and assurance of the the correct path. We increase the light of Christ through our actions and our words. We can pray for forgiveness. We must also forgive. We can seek to see Christ more clearly and in so doing we may be shown the weakest and least desirable in society.
The children of the church are not any more or less a part of this process. Children need to be included in the process. We need to take their hands and lead them through the ups and downs of the church and the Christian life. They need our guidance and honesty. Share the truth of Christ's enduring and patient love with your children. Acknowledge errors and hypocrisy and act to correct them so that our children will be the next step in creating a church full of light. Humility is instrumental in the movement from dark to light. The church is not perfect as no place made up of humans is perfect. The life of a church is a path, often a winding one. The life of a Christian is a path, often a winding one. While it might start with the sudden and abrupt recognition of the light, with patience and humility and steadfastness the light will increase. This advent season let us look for the next candle to shine on our path for us and for our children.
Enjoy this season of moving from the dark into the light,
Michelle
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Step by Step by Step
Taking small steps on the way to accomplishing a goal is so boring. Dramatic changes are more satisfying, at the moment. Dramatic changes are just more interesting. Incremental changes are tedious. Making little sustained changes is difficult.
Big things happen through a myriad of little steps. The money guru, Dave Ramsey, has made a career of telling people to take baby steps in correcting their financial problems. He lays them all out step by step by step. You can’t read his book and have a quick fix by morning, but you can have a fix. It will just take a lot of time and discipline and self sacrifice.
Noah built the ark, Moses led the Israelites, Jesus built the kingdom, not through a flurry of dramatic lightening bolts, but through small steps. Board after board after board, step after step after step, person by person by person, they slowly moved to the goal that was set for them. It is not the stuff of a Hollywood movie. Forty years is a long time to wander the desert. Frustration and disillusionment were companions of these slow changes.
Recently, I participated in a week of self awareness. Through different activities suggested by an online group, I examined the impact my life has, day in and day out, on the planet. I looked at how much trash I create and how much energy I use, among other things. I was surprised by the result. I have a tendency to try to tread lightly on the earth. It comes less from a geo-political agenda and more from being raised with the practical values of a midwest farmer’s daughter and an eagle scout camper.
“Always leave a place cleaner than you found it,” was a cardinal tenet in my formative years. Tidy up the public restroom, pick up litter, take out any trash you bring into the wilderness and pick up someone else’s to add to yours on the way out. We are all responsible for doing our part and a little bit more. Leave everything better than you found it.
So I kept track of all of the trash I generated in one day. I didn’t just think about it; I kept it aside for the day so that I could see it all in the end. I saw all of the bits and pieces of paper and plastic that couldn’t be composted and the pieces that couldn’t or wouldn’t be recycled. I was surprised. I knew my first way to skip creating trash was to use a mug for my coffee at work rather than a styrofoam cup, but then I added sugar to my coffee and was left with two little empty packets and a tiny plastic stirrer. During the course of the morning I ate two, ok three, bite sized candy bars and was left with the wrappers. The list went on bit by bit, piece by piece. What I thought was treading lightly was not. I built a little stock pile of trash and most of it was created because it was convenient to the moment.
It is so tempting to think of it as no big deal. It was only two fists full, or maybe a shoebox full of trash. Truthfully, it would have been more if I hadn’t been keeping track which made me more conscientious. While little steps can be the answer to big problems, little steps in the wrong direction can be the cause of big problems. A little bag of trash a day for one person, on one day is not a big deal; a bag of trash a day for eighty years for 300 million people is more of a problem. One unkind statement from a parent can be no big deal; a childhood full of insults is a problem. All of the little pieces add up to something significant.
It so boring, day in and day out, to do the right thing, to make the sacrifice and effort to stop being such a glutton with resources, to stop indulging bad habits. Gluttony is not a popular concept to talk about. It’s popular to practice gluttony, but not so popular to tag it as such. I’ve noticed that people will go to greater lengths to justify their gluttony than they will to correct it. People go to greater lengths to justify all types of unkind, inconsiderate and selfish habits than to correct them. To correct it would take baby steps and those are inconvenient and boring. Those steps require self denial and sacrifice. While we like to tell other people that is what they should do, it’s a bummer to have to practice it ourselves. It’s the whole speck in my brothers eye while there is a plank in my own situation. (If any one of us thinks we don’t suffer from some form of gluttony and self indulgence at the sacrifice of others, then we are suffering from the further sin of arrogance.)
Spiritual growth is incremental. Relationship growth is incremental. Raising children is incremental. Reducing the growth of landfills is incremental. Just about anything worth doing is best done step by sacrificial step. Step by step by step we can make changes in the right direction. Taking the long view is the wiser course, but, boy, is it the harder one.
Peace,
Michelle
Big things happen through a myriad of little steps. The money guru, Dave Ramsey, has made a career of telling people to take baby steps in correcting their financial problems. He lays them all out step by step by step. You can’t read his book and have a quick fix by morning, but you can have a fix. It will just take a lot of time and discipline and self sacrifice.
Noah built the ark, Moses led the Israelites, Jesus built the kingdom, not through a flurry of dramatic lightening bolts, but through small steps. Board after board after board, step after step after step, person by person by person, they slowly moved to the goal that was set for them. It is not the stuff of a Hollywood movie. Forty years is a long time to wander the desert. Frustration and disillusionment were companions of these slow changes.
Recently, I participated in a week of self awareness. Through different activities suggested by an online group, I examined the impact my life has, day in and day out, on the planet. I looked at how much trash I create and how much energy I use, among other things. I was surprised by the result. I have a tendency to try to tread lightly on the earth. It comes less from a geo-political agenda and more from being raised with the practical values of a midwest farmer’s daughter and an eagle scout camper.
“Always leave a place cleaner than you found it,” was a cardinal tenet in my formative years. Tidy up the public restroom, pick up litter, take out any trash you bring into the wilderness and pick up someone else’s to add to yours on the way out. We are all responsible for doing our part and a little bit more. Leave everything better than you found it.
So I kept track of all of the trash I generated in one day. I didn’t just think about it; I kept it aside for the day so that I could see it all in the end. I saw all of the bits and pieces of paper and plastic that couldn’t be composted and the pieces that couldn’t or wouldn’t be recycled. I was surprised. I knew my first way to skip creating trash was to use a mug for my coffee at work rather than a styrofoam cup, but then I added sugar to my coffee and was left with two little empty packets and a tiny plastic stirrer. During the course of the morning I ate two, ok three, bite sized candy bars and was left with the wrappers. The list went on bit by bit, piece by piece. What I thought was treading lightly was not. I built a little stock pile of trash and most of it was created because it was convenient to the moment.
It is so tempting to think of it as no big deal. It was only two fists full, or maybe a shoebox full of trash. Truthfully, it would have been more if I hadn’t been keeping track which made me more conscientious. While little steps can be the answer to big problems, little steps in the wrong direction can be the cause of big problems. A little bag of trash a day for one person, on one day is not a big deal; a bag of trash a day for eighty years for 300 million people is more of a problem. One unkind statement from a parent can be no big deal; a childhood full of insults is a problem. All of the little pieces add up to something significant.
It so boring, day in and day out, to do the right thing, to make the sacrifice and effort to stop being such a glutton with resources, to stop indulging bad habits. Gluttony is not a popular concept to talk about. It’s popular to practice gluttony, but not so popular to tag it as such. I’ve noticed that people will go to greater lengths to justify their gluttony than they will to correct it. People go to greater lengths to justify all types of unkind, inconsiderate and selfish habits than to correct them. To correct it would take baby steps and those are inconvenient and boring. Those steps require self denial and sacrifice. While we like to tell other people that is what they should do, it’s a bummer to have to practice it ourselves. It’s the whole speck in my brothers eye while there is a plank in my own situation. (If any one of us thinks we don’t suffer from some form of gluttony and self indulgence at the sacrifice of others, then we are suffering from the further sin of arrogance.)
Spiritual growth is incremental. Relationship growth is incremental. Raising children is incremental. Reducing the growth of landfills is incremental. Just about anything worth doing is best done step by sacrificial step. Step by step by step we can make changes in the right direction. Taking the long view is the wiser course, but, boy, is it the harder one.
Peace,
Michelle
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