Advent around the dinner table....

Last night, sitting around the dinner table, brought an experience and made a memory that I hope I never forget. It was one of those perfect moments where the world seemed to stop and my family was all that mattered. It was an incredible time. We all had things we needed to be doing. My son had masses of make-up work from missing a few days of school last week before the Thanksgiveg break in addition to one of those "creative" book report projects that parents hate, but teachers seem to love assigning. My daughter needed to work on some homework as well and catch up on some reading she has been putting off. My wife and I needed to be doing things around the house, since it is on the market. You've been there, the list of things that need to be done to make the house "appear" perfect, not cluttered and sellable never seems to end! I also had a major paper due for the class I'm taking at the university - one third of my grade - in addition to a sermon that I have to deliver tonight. We all had too many things to do, but some how, in the midst of the stress of life and the extensive to-do lists, we managed one of those magical moments when nothing matters but each other. The kids were having a great time, eating and cutting up at the same time. Things that usually bother Karen and I didn't seem so annoying - who cares if Natalie eats most of her meal standing beside her chair instead of seated in it? Who cares if the kids talk with food bulging from their way-to-full mouths? Who cares if the normal bath-time has already passed? Nothing seemed to matter but enjoying each other.

I wish I new how to make those magical moments come every meal time. I wish I could swish a wand or snap my fingers and adjust everyone's attitudes (including my own) to be just as they were last night. I wish I could consistantly push aside all of the things in my mind to make room for family like we managed to do.

I guess that is what Advent is really all about: taking a moment, a season, to look beyond ourselves and our silly little lives or even our major, catastrophic issues and see the Holy family and new friends surrounding the tiny baby, lying in a feed trough, doing what babies do. He could have been easily un-noticed, easily bypassed, but for the choir of angels, and the shepards trudging through town in search of him. He was bypassed by many, just as we often bypass those moments, those precious times with which God has gifted us each day.

Take a break - experience the many joys, the many gifts of life and love that God has placed before you today. Learn to soak up life; for Jesus promised, "I have come that you may have life."

Prayer - a simple conversation?

Why is it that we make things so difficult? My job places me as the sounding board for lots of students who are, or who want to be in relationships. I could almost script most of the conversations in advance - "what is he really thinking" or "what did she mean by that" or "do you think he likes me; I mean, really likes me?" The games we tend to play in our interactions with each other seem to carry over into our relationship with God. It's not that God plays communication games with us - "heh, heh - I'll be she'll never figure our what I'm doing now!" or "I think I'll play hard to get now" or "Let's through a pox his way and see how he responds!" But we often relate to God as if God is playing games with us! As a result we won't just talk to God. I don't mean give a list of our wants (like a grocery or Christmas list), but really converse with God waiting for God to answer before we go seeking advice from friends who were never a part of the conversation in the first place! Why don't we just relax, grab a sandwich and head out to the lake with God for a casual afternoon chat? Why don't we just hang out with God like we do with those we love? Why don't we take God fishing? Biking? Running? Studying? To the Coffee Shop we frequent (some of us way too much)? To the concert? To the movies? To, well, you fill in the blank? Basically, we need to realize that we don't take God anywhere - God is already everywhere! I love the concept (very Biblical, by the way) expressed in the old-school praise song, "This is the air I breathe, your holy presence, living in me." The concept of God as spirit, air, wind, and breathe comes from the Hebrew word that can be translated as any of these words - "RUAH." Prayer should be as simple as breathing, as simple as casual conversation with a very close friend. The God who breathed life into Adam (Genesis 2) is the same God that, in Jesus, breathed his spirit into the disciples in the upper room after his resurrection (John), and who was the mighty wind of the Holy Spirit falling upon the church in Acts, and who fills our lungs each day with Life, Grace, Peace and HOPE! It is the God who lives; the God who breathes, the God who wants us to know him through conversation each day, all day, as we go about the live God has blessed us with living. Take time to chat today with your constant companion, your breath of life, your God!