And look here, because I’m too lazy to write the comment myself.
Things that make me cry Pt 7867
It seems Sunday will be crying day from now on. This week I alarmed the preacher at our church by pretty much crying through most of his sermon. Well, he shouldn’t have been saying things like: “Immanuel, means God is with us. He is with us” over and over again. Or “God is really for us, he really is right with us”. The repetition is what my thick skull needs right now. Christmas, more than any other time of the year reminds me so much of the reality that God came down to earth. The Maker mixed it up with His creation.
As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve just come out of seven years in a Christian Bubble. No longer am I surrounded by people who live with the knowledge that there is a God, that he really loves us and did everything to get back into relationship with us. It’s a good thing that I’m having to figure out and wonder if I believe because everyone else around me does. My personality is such that I easily go along with the general mood of the room I’m in at the time. Not such a good tactic when it comes to the fundamental realities of life. It’s hard to keep on believing when all around don’t. Just as it would be hard to not believe in a room full of people who all believe the same things as I do. I struggle with doubt and unbelief. But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t.
As ever the only thing that really helps is another dose of reminder of what God is really like. That He is good, and that for some reason best known to Him, he really loves me. He really has taken my accusers away and He stepped into the mess of this world. The Word became Flesh. That’s what makes me cry on this dark winters day. Light stepped in and the darkness did not understand/overcome/consume it.
Things that make me cry. Pt 568
Today it was Kevin’s talk on the Virgin Birth. On why this matters so much. God coming to earth as a baby. God growing up with us. The seemingly impossible possible. God come to be with us. That means He cares. That means that all our random day to day routines and work lives matter to him. Jesus spent 15 years being a carpenter before he did anything else. He knows about the routine of work, he knows about being tired and sad. He knows about our situations. He has been here. The God of the heavens and the earth is so much more wonderful and strange than we give him credit for. The God of the universe didn’t abandon his creation. He stepped into the mess and did something about it.
That’s why tonight I fight the Sunday evening blues, the feeling that I must get the week of work over to get to the weekend. I fight it because tomorrow there is purpose and meaning in each moment. Tomorrow there is new mercy. Tonight as I sleep God stays awake, watching, doing things, getting up to stuff, and tomorrow morning we will wake up into a world where He is active and alive. Tomorrow is a day alive with possibility and opportunity. For some of us it needs to be endured and survived but it is not random or pointless, it will not be a waste of time. There is splendor in the ordinary of our lives. God cares about the to do list on my desk at work. Weird eh.
Bliss.
This has nothing to do with Advent at all, it’s just one of the most beautiful songs sung by a man with one of the most beautiful voices. It might even rival the original. Martyn Joseph’s voice is … many things I can’t describe. Enjoy.
The Long Walk Home 