Blog:FOREST LAKE TALKS

I heard a story this week from a new member of FLPC whose son and his new wife were not able to come home this Thanksgiving. She is a Marine, and he is an ER Nurse. They could not come home this Thanksgiving because they both had to work in another state. The husband was involved with a woman who received a terminal diagnosis and who went from the ER into a palliative care ward in the hospital to die. She had no family nearby and was feeling sad that she would be eating alone in the hospital for what was her last Thanksgiving. The ER nurse, thinking quickly and compassionately, told her that if she/the patient would INVITE him and his wife, and because she was no longer his patient in the ER, that they would come to the hospital and eat Thanksgiving Dinner with her. So, they cooked their first ever Thanksgiving meal as husband and wife and took it to the hospital to share it with the woman who was alone in the hospital.

As the calendar year ends, and Advent begins, the posture of Christians is one of anticipatory hope! We are waiting, but not passively. We are waiting, with anticipation and in a spirit of getting ready, for God to come to earth. Our Advent Theme – All is Not Calm: Getting to the Manger! – acknowledges that there are many people who are waiting with a sense of dread, fear, or weariness. And sometimes we also feel this way. But the essential life posture of those who wait in fear or weariness is completely different from those who wait in hope and anticipation. So, when we are waiting for God’s coming, our lives embody a posture of hope and anticipation – not the posture of those who are fearful or overcome with anxiety. We can wait as though we are waiting to die, or we can wait as though we are waiting to live. We can wait as though we are afraid and too tired to look up, or we can wait as those who are looking for others who need our help. We can wait in dread and depression, or we can wait in hope and compassion.

This newly married couple could have been depressed and focused on the fact that families were far away, and they had to work. Instead, their lives took the shape of those who were looking for God to show up. And, I believe, in their compassion and generosity God DID SHOW UP! Do our lives look like we expect God to show up? Are we looking for ways to welcome Jesus? Or are we, more like King Herod, so consumed with our own plans that we expect others to wait on us!? How do we wait? Galatians 5:22-23 would be a great model (and a great memory verse) for this Advent season.

Galatians 5:22-23

“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”