Fairlawn West

Here and now...

It is November 25th.  I shared in a wonderful family centered Thanksgiving yesterday.  

Today I am getting ready for Lunch on Us at Miller Ave UCC in south Akron in a neighborhood where folks don't have much else than family...if they have family.  We expect to feed 125 people and I am grateful for the Fairlawn West folks who have offered to cook and serve...and share fellowship with all the folks present.

Sunday begins the season of Advent in preparation for the celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace.  I know a few of our folks who will be fasting during Advent.  That is a very good spiritual discipline to help be focused on the meaning of Christmas for we who follow Jesus.  Another is the giving of alms to the poor.  This is an ancient Christian discipline which helps us to focus on the other...not ourselves.  Two very good programs for alms giving are Charity Water and One Day Wages.

Now is a good time to slow down and pray and listen to God.  Something big is coming.  If we are too tired or too distracted, we will miss it.  There is no question about that.  When during then rest of the year people tell me they are angry with God or frustrated with God, I can lay odds they were not prepared for the coming of God's child and thus they haven't really met God yet.  They missed it even though they participated in a season called "Christmas.".  I feel sorry for those folks and pray for them.

Remember how Jesus keeps telling us about the first being last and the last being first.  Jesus' rule is upside down from the way the world does things.  So instead of a big build up to a climax at a holiday, Jesus and Advent slow us down so we are rested and attentive when he is born.  Otherwise Christmas is a quick tip of the hat and we rush off to whatever is next to try to make us feel good and pump us up.  

Oh how I look forward to the peace and quiet and rest of Advent...and just being with God, the light of the world, in the darkest of times.

Grace and peace,
David