Bonhoeffer, Advent, and Waiting

We are doing our best to observe the Advent calendar in our home this Christmas. One of the themes of Advent is the sense of waiting on the Lord in anticipation of his coming to rescue us, both in his incarnation on Christmas, and then again at His second coming. I came across these words penned by German pastor/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer while he was imprisoned in Nazi Germany in his last years for conspiring with others against Adolf Hitler. He had only recently been engaged to his fiancee before being sent to prison. Good words to ponder on the theme of waiting, sometimes amidst trouble and suffering....

Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is the art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespectful hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them. Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting -- that is, of hopefully doing without -- will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.

And again from prison in 1943, written in a letter to his fiancee:

Be brave, my dearest Maria, even if this letter is your only token of my love this Christmas-tide. We shall both experience a few dark hours -- why should we disguise that from each other? We shall ponder the incomprehensibility of our lot and be assailed by the question of why, over and above the darkness already enshrouding humanity. We are being subjected to the bitter anguish of a separation whose purpose we fail to understand. And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger.

Amen!

Incidentally, I highly recommend this recent biography of Bonhoeffer. This was one of the best books I read this past year and one of my favorite biographies I have read, period.

Reading the Bible in 2011

For each of the last several years I have made it a goal to read through the whole Bible and have benefited greatly from doing this. I recommend that everyone be in the Word on a consistent basis at some level in 2011. If this is a goal you are considering, (and I pray that many of you are) you may wish to read the following blog posts with some excellent thoughts to consider on Bible reading.

Here is Matthew Hoskinson's six-part series on Bible reading:

1. Reading the Bible in 2011
2. Dangers Within
3. Sitting Down
4. Reading
5. Plans
6. Final Thoughts

Advent Devotionals

Here are some links to some free devotional material for Advent that might be useful for you and your family. These can provide a "track to run on" in helping your family focus on the coming of Jesus Christ amidst all of the busyness of the season. Enjoy!

Park Street Church Advent

Mark D. Roberts

Christ the King Advent Devotionals

Thoughts on being grateful

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I found this short article really spoke to me about the struggle I have being grateful for what I have been given, for the things that now seem "normal". Perhaps on Thanksgiving day it will speak to you to. Here's an excerpt:

Russell Moore:

“If I hear the word ‘Daddy’ again, I’m going to scream!”

I heard myself saying those words. And, in my defense, it was loud around here. I was trying to work on something, and all I could hear were feet pounding down the stairs with four boys competing with one another to tell me one thing after another. I just wanted five minutes of silence.

My vocal chords were still vibrating when an image hit my brain. It was the picture of me, on my face, praying for children. The house was certainly quiet then. And in those years of infertility and miscarriage and seemingly unanswered prayers, I would have given anything to hear steps on that staircase. I feared I would never hear the word “Daddy,” ever, directed to me. Come to think of it, I even wrote a book about the Christian cry of “Abba, Father.”

And now I was annoyed. Why? It wasn’t that I’d changed my mind about the blessing of children. It was that my family had become “normal” to me. In the absence of children, the blessing was forefront on my mind. But in their presence, they’d become expected, part of what I expected from my day-to-day existence. And that’s what’s so dangerous.

Gratitude is spiritual warfare. I’m convinced my turn of imagination that day was conviction of sin, a personal uprooting of my own idolatry by the Spirit of Christ. What I need to fear most is what seems normal to me.

Read the rest.

Daddy Christmas Tips

Here's a challenge to all the dads to be intentional with your family this Christmas.

Mark Driscoll:

1. Dad needs a plan for the holidays to ensure his family is loved and memories are made. Dad, what’s your plan?
2. Dad needs to ensure his family is giving generously during the holidays. Dad, who in need is your family going to adopt, bless, and serve?
3. Dad needs to carve out time for sacred events and experiences to build family traditions that are fun and point to Jesus. Dad, is you calendar ready for December?
4. Dad needs to not let the stress of the holidays, including money, cause him to be grumpy with Mom or the kids. Dad, how’s your joy?
5. Dad needs to make memories and not just give gifts. Dad, what special memories can you make this holiday season?
6. Dad needs to manage the extended family and friends during the holidays. Dad, who or what do you need to say “no” to?
7. Dad needs to schedule a big Christmas date with his daughter(s). Dad, what’s your big plan for the fancy Daddy-daughter date?
8. Dad needs to schedule guy time with his son(s). Dad, what are you and your son(s) going to do that is active, outdoors, and fun?
9. Dad needs to help get the house decorated. Dad, are you really a big help to Mom with getting things ready?
10. Dad needs to ensure there are some holiday smells and sounds. Dad, is Christmas music on the iPod, is the tree up, can you smell cookies and cider?

C.S. Lewis quote

Here is the C.S. Lewis quote I referred to in class this morning.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. "
- C. S. Lewis, from the The Weight of Glory

November 7 Class

On Sunday November 7 we will discuss Session 4 in the Gospel in Life study. Here is the description:

"SESSION 4: COMMUNITY – THE CONTEXT FOR CHANGE
In Session 4 we see that the church is “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). It is a new humanity, a new community of people under the Lordship of Christ. We need to create a great community because that is, according to Jesus in John 17, a crucial way to show the world that we are truly followers of Christ. In fact, we see that we will not know God, change deeply, or win the world apart from community."

Read the Home Study on pp. 56-72 in preparation for class. Hope to see everyone there!