December Twenty-Fourteen

December 2014 

My friend Susan Koeker wrote to me in an email this month: 

"Advent reminds us that the darkness will not last." 

"That’s really what Advent is all about—making room for God’s light and life to fill us so that fear has no room to grow." - Andi Saccoccio

Go slow.

Be God struck.

Grant grace.

Live truth.

Give thanks.

Become the gift.

-Ann Voskamp

“For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning – not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last.” ― Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

Steadfast Tin Soldier Performance 2014 - Dance Fremont

Brene Brown is an author and speaker who says it like it is 

and I so appreciate her wisdom:

"Holidays can be messy, hard, wonderful, beautiful, lonely, and joyful (sometimes all within the same hour).  Be kind to yourself and others. Together, we can dare greatly and do good things."

"As I think about my own life and reflect upon what many of the people around me are going through this Christmas, it’s clear that struggle doesn’t take off for the holidays. The gremlins don’t go on vacation. Checks bounce, chemotherapy appointments are scheduled, relationships keep unravelling, being alone feels even lonelier, and the “never enoughs” are in full swing.  As I prepare to spend the next few days with my family and friends, I’ve decided to find my holiday magic in the mess; to practice love and gratitude with the special group of folks who keep showing up and loving me, not despite my vulnerabilities, but because of them." -Brene Brown

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

Will I receive the absurd and fantastic love of God? Will I, like Mary, say, Here I am, crazy as it sounds. I’m in. And will we stay put so that we can welcome with wide arms the joy, the love, the wonder? –Winn Collier

“Christ is born to us today, in order that he might appear to the whole world through us.” -Thomas Merton

"God came to us because he wanted to join us on the road, to listen to our story, and to help us realize that we are not walking in circles but moving towards the house of peace and joy.  This is the great mystery of Christmas that continues to give us comfort and consolation: we are not alone on our journey.  The God of love who gave us life sent his only Son to be with us at all times and in all places, so that we never have to feel lost in our struggles but always can trust that he walks with us.

The challenge is to let God be who he wants to be.  A part of us clings to our aloneness and does not allow God to touch us where we are most in pain.  Often we hide from him precisely those places in ourselves where we feel guilty, ashamed, confused, and lost.  Thus we do not give him a chance to be with us where we feel most alone.

Christmas is the renewed invitation not to be afraid and to let him-whose love is greater than our own hearts and minds can comprehend-be our companion.”     - Henri Nouwen

Happy New Year!