I sit here early in the evening trying to figure out what to say to you all. And to be honest, I forgot I was asked to write for the blog. Much like life lately, THIS happens before getting to the thing you WANT to do, or THAT happens before you can get to the thing you NEED to do. Well, all of THIS and THAT has passed. Life can resume as normal…or as normal as it can get around this time of year.
So now here we are. And I get to thinking, the THISes and the THATs are what happens in life. I told Pastor Vaughn that I would not be able to write for the blog last week because I was already doing lots and lots and LOTS of writing. Six projects and papers due the same week. THAT got in the way of what I WANTED to do.
Advent is the season of longing and waiting. Waiting for hope, waiting for peace, longing for love, longing for JOY. My recent week or two of writing, re-writing, scrapping, and starting all over again is just a microcosm of what this Advent season is all about. I was longing for that joyous moment when all my projects and papers were finished and submitted. And last Thursday, after approximately 18,000 words written in total (for all six projects and papers), that joyous moment finally arrived. I was finished. Yes there is more to go and that means more longing to find that joy of finishing. But you know what else I just realized while writing this? That joy brought peace. Peace because there is no more stress of writing. There is peace because I can spend time with my wife and kids again instead of clickety-clackety typing into the wee hours of the morning – which, by the way, writing until 2:00 in the morning is the new “all-nighter” for this forty-something guy.
And now, with that peace, comes hope. Hope that yes, I CAN do this thing called a Master’s degree. There is hope that I can finish and spend time with my family more often. And spending time with my family brings love. Because we are together, we can love.
So why am I bragging that I can write 18,000 words in under two weeks? Well, like I said above, these past couple of weeks have been a microcosm of what this season is all about. We long for hope. We long for peace. We long for joy. We long for love. What these past couple of weeks have taught me was that if we focus on what is really important then we can get through that longing and waiting and enjoy the hope/peace/joy/love. In fact, it makes it that much sweeter. Yes, we may get impatient for it. But how much better it is once we get there.
As I tried to get some inspiration by reading through others’ blogs, I noticed that one or two of you mentioned the tragedies that have happened recently. I could not help but think of those affected by the recent tragedies as well. In fact, I was going to start out my blog with them. It makes me wonder, how are they longing for joy? How CAN they have hope? And once they get there, how sweet will it be? I cannot imagine going through such horrific life events and coming through the other side waiting for that joy and hope and love and peace to come. These tragedies, these fires and shootings, these major life events are absolutely mind boggling. My THISes and THATs are nothing.
Which now leads me to thinking how can we be the hope and love and joy and peace to those who are going through these tremendous times? My paper that I wrote up until the 11th hour is nothing. Losing your home is a major THIS and THAT in life. How can I, how can WE be that peace, that hope, that joy, that love?