Focusing on the simple story of Christmas this Advent opens up so many parts of the story that I have missed over the years. I always think of Advent in terms of “expectation” and “repentance” and “preparation” and “sacrifice.” How do I prepare for Christmas? What should I give up during Advent for penance? How do I get ready for the coming of Jesus? All good stuff. But “healing” was never an Advent word for me.
Our group spent some time talking about healing and what we needed to have healed or restored in our lives. One guy needs his heart healed in the middle of a painful separation and likely divorce. One of us (who probably spoke for many of us) needs to be healed from the pride that makes him want to do it all alone. Another member wants healing from the deep loneliness that settles on his heart during the holidays. Another wants healing from the anger that quickly rises to the surface.
As I listened, I thought of the gap that exists at Christmas. There is such longing at this time of year for happiness, joy, contentment, fulfillment, and peace. And yet there are so many stories of sadness, loneliness, depression, anxiety, stress, and even ill will and tragedy. The Christmas Gap. It was amazing how the areas that need healing in our lives seem to rise more quickly and more frequently to the surface during Christmas and can overwhelm the happiness and joy that we really want during this season.
And then we try to fill the gap - with Ipads, new cars, bigger screen TV’s, expensive parties, pretty decorations, busyness, expensive presents and lots of them. Our culture certainly recognizes the gap. But it seems to offer only one solution – bigger, more, more often. Most of us have tried those gap fillers with limited and very short term success. I can fend off my unhappiness and longings with new stuff for a while, but I’m quickly in search of what’s next to fill the gap that hasn’t gone away.
God understands the Christmas Gap and knows that the way we try to fill it – even in Jesus’ time – is focused on the wrong things. We try to satisfy desires. God is about healing hearts. So God gave us the simple story of Christmas. And healing and restoration are such an important part of it. God fills the Christmas Gap with faithfulness and the promise of a restored heart; by sending Jesus in the most humble form with the most powerful message of healing and restoration. The Christmas Gap is only really filled by the healing and restoration of our hearts in Jesus.
Trying to satisfy my wants with stuff only exposes the deep longings of my heart. Advent points to the restoring and healing of our hearts as the only way to satisfy our deepest desires. Where do you need to fill the gap - have your heart healed and restored this Christmas? Whose heart can you help heal and restore this Christmas? Spend Less. Give More. Love Others. Worship Fully.
Missionaries Update
5 years ago
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As usual Jack has done an excellent job of capturing the spirit of our small group with his blog report.
I have been struggling to fully grasp the Advent Conspiracy reflections with my work environment and the quote from Scot Peck that heads the blog page. There just seemed to me to be something missing.
The focus within the group has been on healing, personal healing. That is an incredibly important progression because without personal healing we cannot build community. And as Mr. Peck states, There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability;
there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community. - M. Scott Peck. But he misses a key point - there can be no peace without justice. A community founded without justice will flounder because without justice there will always be a divide in the community.
The Advent Conspiracy directs us toward a commitment to Justice in order to build a stronger community. Giving through community means rejecting the advertising of economic juggernauts like WalMart. WalMart is the antithesis to community. They promote poverty within their employees, they encourage mindless spending, they refuse to provide health benefits for families. They destroy community. The Advent Conspiracy moves us away from patronizing these conglomerates. And the missing step is for us as a community, as we go through our own personal healing, is to speak out against the insidious denigration of our community by those who would distract us from each other.
But this is as hard if not harder then working on our personal healing. We work on our personal healing in our small groups and within our family but speaking our for Justice so that there can be peace in the community requires a public outcry. It require us to put our beliefs on the line out in the open. Our beliefs are our rules for action. Our conduct, produced by our thoughts, governed by our beliefs, is what matters. Through this we find peace because we fight for justice. The Advent Conspiracy is a call to action personal and public. Any thing that detracts from our ability to build a community must be called out by us as a group. And this is the missing piece of Scott Peck's quote.
I crave the day when my brothers and sisters are more important then monetary profit, when we spend as much on feeding our children as we do on feeding the wild birds, when charity is defined by justice, when those who are created differently from us are respected not hated and when we have the courage to a healthy community is our life's endeavor. Let us promote the full meaning of the Advent Conspiracy throughout the land.
I am speechless. Thank you Jack. Thank you Michael.
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