Glory of the Season

Is there such a thing as a peaceful moment? Can quietness be found, anywhere in this whole wide world of hustle and bustle; where peace is associated with hippies and sometimes even Buddhism; where quietness is forced rather than embraced and accepted? 

Streets of injustice are found on every other block of the city we know as our hearts; delight in the things that spring forth from man's hands: we run to them. 

Daily, people in this world lash out; they go the extra mile only to realize that their cuffed hands are dirty and guilty of murdering the innocent. 

Rivers of guilt plague souls all the time... 

And we try to erase any guilt by leaving trails of goodness around the parts of our hearts that seem to dirty to be cleaned. 

What happens is a battle: between two things in our hearts longing for the same thing, trying to receive that thing using two different methods;

What the two things inside of us desire is an encounter with a god; one wants the encounter with The God and the other with a god; an idol in our lives that happens to be leading us astray though we are unaware.  

Soon we realize that our souls have been crushed by the yoke of the world instead of elevated by the yoke of Jesus; a weightless, burden-less, hopeful gain, vs. the world's weighing, crushing, hopeless loss.

Savior is gentle though, and he comes down to earth to be on our level so that we can understand him in our languages and thought processes; he is perfect and communicates his love perfectly. We need not be afraid.  

The Advent Season beckons us to remember the patterns in our lives that reflect the story of falling; only to be lifted back up and dusted off by Savior. 

It invites us to remember that quietness and peace are a part of our hearts and who we are, not what we desire to become; because Jesus has made his home right on those 'every other blocks'of injustice found within us; and He, with his broom, sweeps away that injustice, and places in those areas his weightless, burden-less, hope; a glory yoke. 

It invites us to celebrate the fails, falls, and flaws of us, to embrace the truth that we are so deep in our sins, yet He is so strong to pick us up out of the mire. 

It invites us to re-ignite our long lost lights; the lamps that we are all supposed to be; on those hills where we were all once called to live and have somehow seeped into the valleys. 

It invites us to recall the grace stories and glory stories of Savior and all He has done for us; and to accept and love the forgiveness He bestows on us day after day after day. 

He is good.