Day 20 Are you ready?

 Id written the blog for today (Ill probably post that one tomorrow) but just before I was about to read it over and tweak it I was thinking about what to write for the last couple of days and I think I heard the Lord say '' have a look at the word 'ready' ''    

Its a word we hear all the time at this time of year.  Are you ready for Christmas?  Everyone you speak to this week, from the postman to your granny will ask you this question.  As I was thinking about this I was wondering why it is that we feel the need to be ready for what is just another day of the week.  On Christmas day we will wake up, brush our teeth , get dressed. Eat. Talk to people. Watch some telly. Go to bed.  All the things we usually do every day.  Yes, granted we will also open some presents, eat more food than we usually do and possibly go for a walk or play a board game with people we might not normally see on a daily basis.   But it's not that far out of the norm.  We arent prepping for Armageddon.!  Yet getting ready for Christmas has become a monumental thing in our culture.  And its a bit weird when you think about it.

For me this year getting ready means a) making sure Ive got presents for people  b) putting up a tree and decorating it  c) buying food  d) sending half a dozen Christmas cards and e) doing a few church things - yesterday it was singing carols at the old folks home which is always a joy.   I suppose it has involved a bit of forward planning and preparation.  When the kids were younger there was much more buying and planning involved. I know most people probably do a lot more than I do in the run up to the 25th.  Getting ready. Being prepared. Sorting things. 



Then theres a deeper layer to that word 'ready'.   Am I prepared, waiting, anticipating, good to go for what Christmas means?  Jesus has come.  He has lived and died and risen and sent His spirit into my life - am I ready for what He wants to do with that fact?  I was reminded of a song we sang briefly decades ago ,and when I went to look for it and listen again I felt something shift in my spirit.  Heres the song by Godfrey Birtill. ( stick with it, its not your traditional christian chorus!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rdz6GeuVpw

This is what Christmas has achieved.  Glory.  Glory in the kitchen and in the streets and in the world. The holy presence of Almighty God dwelling among us. In our office. At the school gate.  In Tesco. In the bath. While we sleep. All the time and in every place where we set our feet the glory of the Lord shines from within us.  The light we carry is shed abroad and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Yesterday a few of us were singing carols to old folks in a residential home. Most had dementia. Nearly all of them were able to sing along with all the carols and absolutely loved it.  Even though we didn't say anything about being from a church we carried Jesus and He was doing His thing.  Not only in the old folks but in us.  I could feel His heart of love for these dear souls.  I could see the truth of the words of the carols reaching into spirits that were isolated and confused and bringing clarity and connection.  It was glorious. Because the glory of the newborn King was in the room.  Where we are is where He is. Which is why there is glory in the sitting room and glory in the dentist. 😊

Today go forth and be glorious.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1. Do not fear

Image
Over the summer something unusual happened. One Sunday morning someone in our congregation came up for prayer. I happened to be on the prayer team so asked what is was she'd like prayer for and she said she was about to go on holiday and was really terrified, highly anxious, super stressed. I asked why. She said she just got really scared when doing anything out of the ordinary. She then said she had always ' suffered from anxiety'. When she said that, something triggered in me and I got really cross. Not cross with her. Cross with the lies which were causing her to be full of fear all the time about everything. I had a chat with her about fear, I prayed with her. She stood listening open-mouthed and said she had never heard anyone explain fear like that. She went off on holiday and actually messaged me half way through to tell me she was having a great time. Two weeks later I was at Summer Madness. Youth festival with 2,000 teenagers from every sort of church background ca...
Read more

Day 8 a testimony

Image
Im a very blessed person because I was brought up in an entirely fear-free family. My parents both had their fare share of troubles and difficulties. They lost a baby before I was born. They had an unhappy marriage and divorced when I was 4. They both remarried and both ran small businesses with all the stresses and hard work that that entails. They were both widowed relatively young. There was plenty of real life struggle as I was growing up. But..... I can honestly say that as a child I was never aware of an environment of anxiety, worry, fear. My parents talked about things as my brother and I got older and we knew the reality of some of the difficult ' life stuff'. But neither of my parents were fearful. Im not sure why. They were both born during the war years and maybe that generation were purposefully and strongly protected from the fears that the war must have engendered. They were most likely brought up being sheltered from truly scary things. And therefor...
Read more

Day 19 The only fear

Image
  Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,   15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.  Hebrews 2 I apologise that this Advent Blog has been so serious.  When I started out this year I didnt think Id still be writing about fear on day 19.  But there is so much to talk about! This might be the last day and maybe the last few will be a bit more lighthearted. We shall see. Anyhow, what fear really all boils down to in all of its manifestations is the fear of death.  When you peel back the facade of every fear and dig down into what its all about it comes back to this.  The reason Adam and Eve had absolutely no fear in the Garden of Eden was because there was no death. Hebrews tells us that we are all, for all of our lives, held in slavery by the fear of death. This is why we can live free...
Read more