Heightened Awareness
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
Sometimes God is unmistakable — an Archangel, a Blinding Light.
Most of the time, God is easily missed.
That’s by design.
In humility and out of respect for the freedom granted us, God hides in plain sight — though he deeply desires to be found. God is always looking for us looking for him.
The good news is that God is findable. He’s not far from each one of us (Acts 17:27). Seeking and finding God means pausing, noticing, listening, and, often, acknowledging your body in some way. Sometimes a few deep breaths are enough to bring us into the present moment, the place where God resides.
Think of how many people were physically close to Jesus from cradle to cross without knowing who was in their midst. God was literally and tangibly with them and they didn’t know it. But Mary knew, and she kept the knowing near her heart.
Advent is an invitation to be like Mary in heightened awareness. It is, despite all the motion around us, an invitation to slow down. Winn Collier is on to something:
“I realized yesterday how much I need these Advent days…to be clear, I do not need the Advent industry. Why do we take every single good and beautiful thing — every rhythm inviting us to simplicity — and make a circus of it? Advent is quieting, paring back, watching, repenting, tending. But the oversold production and the rush of add-on practices and readings and all the Advent angling — it exhausts me. If we’re selling this whole thing so hard, we lose the tears. There’s no place for the ache. Sometimes our chatter about solitude or prayer or waiting for God become the barriers to experiencing it. My prayers are pretty elementary these days: Help, God. That’s my Advent practice.”
On the podcast, Mindy Caliguire said soul care is like learning to breathe underwater.
For her, fresh air comes through journaling and friendship.
For Winn, getting air to the soul this Advent is simply praying, Help, God.
For you? Whatever it is, don’t make it complicated. Take five minutes. Take ten. Take thirty. Take a walk. Go caroling. You may see God in gray-haired Gertrude calling from her doorway for another song. Even if your life is dark right now, some tiny crack in the wall is filled with light. God wants to be found.
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
On this week’s episode of the Life with God podcast, Mindy Caliguire says that spiritual practices are the lifelines to our soul’s wellbeing.
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2.
In an interchange between Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past we see the softening influence of looking back on one’s life. As a spiritual practice, examen is a reflection on one’s past experiences to observe with the clarity of hindsight one’s emotions and responses, and above all to recognize the consoling Presence of God. God invites us into reflection for the sake of our spiritual “welfare” or “reclamation” (words the Ghost uses to explain the benefits of the exercise to Scrooge).
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3.
Journaling is a practice that helps us look for the light of God’s Presence in our lives and circumstances. Mindy Caliguire’s organization Soul Care has a free “21 Day Jumpstart to Journaling,” available for download here.
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4.
“Maybe we could hold our tears together, and together peer out into the dark hours, and watch for that in-breaking light,” writes Winn Collier in his recent Advent Letter. “Because the belligerent truth is I believe in that Light far more than I believe in the gloom.”
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5.
In case you missed it, Renovaré just released a new resource for spiritual renewal called Ted, Thomas, and a Letter to a Local Church. In it you’ll find encouragement for your own local fellowship — to receive and to be the message that “Light overcomes darkness.”
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6.
“The Life was the light of the people. The light shines in the darkness…. We live from this truth. This shining light is like the air we breathe.” Read Karl Barth’s 1918 Advent sermon on Christ as the Source of all wisdom and of our very life.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
“The Light for which the world longs is already shining.”
– Thomas Kelly
Ted, Thomas, and a Letter to a Local Church
(source)
TO CONTEMPLATE
Illustration for The Imitation of Christ
Maurice Denis 1897
(source)
Radiant in the darkness, Christ leads by lighting the way ahead. He cranes his neck to look back toward the viewer, as if to say “are you coming?”
Advent, from the Latin veni, or “coming,” references Christ’s birth and his future return, the coming of Emmanuel, God-with-us. Perhaps we can also think of Advent as our coming —coming to connect with God more regularly throughout the day, coming to embrace the duty of the present moment, coming to see all things in the light of Jesus’ teaching, and coming after him by imitating his life. “Come, follow me.” (Matthew 4:19)
TO PONDER
What way of “getting air to the soul this Advent” (in the essay above) is calling your name?