Advent season

Showing Up for the Lord

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It seems like we barely finish eating our leftover turkey and pumpkin pie when the Christmas season comes crashing in. That’s what it often feels like. A runaway train with a time clock ticking down to Christmas. We’re aware of all that we need to accomplish in those four weeks, and we just hope and pray we can get it all done. 

While fully acknowledging the realities of this busy time of year, I also want to encourage you to not forget about Advent. Delight in the season in its own right, not just as a rushed precursor to Christmas. Don’t let the Advent season pass in a blur. Be intentional about how you spend your time. Your time of joyful anticipation will be so much richer.

Advent marks the season in which the Lord shows up in our lives, on earth, and for the world. Let this be a time for reflecting on the ways in which we show up for the Lord.  This can be done in three ways—as Jesus teaches us in the Great Commandment: Love God, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. 

Showing up for the Lord 

How will we spend time with the Lord this Advent season? In everyday ways, by praying, listening to our favorite Christmas hymns, feeling God’s presence and inviting Jesus along with us wherever we go. You might feel called to step away from the “to do” list and spend even more time with the Lord by attending a spiritual retreat or an Advent scripture program. 

Showing up for Ourselves 

During this busy, hectic season, what are we doing to take care of ourselves? Moments of silence and calm, however brief they may be, can go a long way to restore us during a time of year that can drain our energy, leaving us feeling stressed and anxious. Take time to simply sit in silence. For many people, the holiday season is a struggle because of loss and grief or depression. If you are one of those people, be gentle with yourself. Don’t try to live up to any expectation of what this season “should” be. Simply rest in the Lord.

Showing up for Others 

The Advent season provides many opportunities to show up for others. Every church, local non-profit, and many businesses have donation programs, toy drives, or collections for those less fortunate. Donate some of your abundance (food, clothing, etc.) to those in need. If you don’t have those things to give, then offer your prayers or your time. Remember that we are called to be Christ for others during Advent and always.  We are the voice and hands of Jesus here on earth. In the beautiful words of St. Theresa of Avila:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

— St. Teresa of Ávila

An Advent Prayer

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Loving God, 
as we draw closer to that Holy Night 
The night of our Savior’s birth
We are filled with questions: 
Why did you come?
What did you come here to do? 
What does your coming mean for us today?

You came to serve. To feed the hungry. To heal the sick. 
To humble yourself to serve the very least of us.
Come, Lord Jesus! Help us remember that by serving 
Our brothers and sisters, we are serving you.
Teach us to use our talents and strengths 
To help those most in need
This season and all seasons

You came to comfort and to give rest to the weary.
To carry our burdens and give us peace from worry and fear.
Come, Lord Jesus! May our homes, our hearts
And our very presence offer comfort to those 
Who are worn out and stretched thin. 
May we offer them a kind word, a soft smile, 
And a warm heart.

You came to show mercy. To teach us to 
Forgive as we have been forgiven.
Come, Lord Jesus! May your radical mercy show us 
How to soften our hearts to those who have caused us hurt. 
Teach us by your example to forgive 
Even the deepest wounds
And to set ourselves free.

Above all, You came to love 
and to teach us how to love.
This Great Commandment gives us everything we could ever need.
Come, Lord Jesus! By your example, 
May we hold one another close this Christmas season.  
Close in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our words, and in our deeds. 
May we love by your example.
Come, Lord Jesus! AMEN.

Hearing God’s Whisper ministry wishes you a very Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!

Mary and the Advent Story

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The Advent story is full of rich and dramatic events, culminating in the birth of our Savior. For me, one of the most powerful ones is the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary in Luke’s Gospel.

God chooses Mary and comes to her with an invitation—to bring Christ into the world. Mary’s response to this invitation is life-changing and world-changing. It’s impossible to overstate how huge this moment was. EVERYTHING, the very salvation of the world, hinged upon her response.

There is a tendency to believe that Mary didn’t really have a choice in the matter. That Gabriel came—not to ask her a question—but to tell her what was to be. To tell her what her destiny was to be. The problem with this interpretation is that it takes away any agency from Mary and misreads the moment as a passive one, as if Mary were simply swept along into God’s plans, without the opportunity to make her own choice. Without the chance to say “yes.”  

And so it’s worth spending a little time exploring the other possibility: Could Mary have said “no” to God?  Did Mary have free will in this situation?

From the very beginning of God’s interaction with the human race, our free will has always been respected. From the moment we were created, we have been free to make our own choices. Why wouldn’t the same be true for Mary? Which means she wasn’t programmed to say yes, like a robot, or coerced into saying yes, like a soldier obeying an order from a commanding officer. This wasn’t like the scene from the Godfather: “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.” But instead, through the angel Gabriel, God was issuing Mary an invitation. How she responded was entirely up to her. Knowing that fact…doesn’t it make her answer that much more powerful?  In the words of poet and author Christine Valters Paintner:

“When the angel Gabriel visits Mary, she is given a choice rather than a demand. Mary is active in her “yes” to the angel’s invitation as well as in her surrender: “Let it be done to me.” God’s unfolding of salvation is dependent upon Mary’s full ‘yes.’”

So what characteristics did Mary possess that allowed her to say yes? Mary was open to God’s plans for her life. She was willing to trust God. As scary as the prospect of bearing a child under such circumstances might have been, Mary trusted that this was the path God had chosen for her. And she was willing to surrender her own plans to answer God’s call. 

How often do we do this? It is so easy to stubbornly cling to our own plans even when we feel God nudging us in a different direction. Remember…we were born with the same free will that Mary was. Our choices are ours to make. God can only invite us to follow. Can we trust enough to be open to the mystery of God’s plans for our lives? 

Our answer to God is always a choice. Mary was asked to bring Christ into the world, and she answered yes. As Christians, we are asked to do that very same thing. Not in the same way that Mary did, but in the way we live our lives. In the way we interact with others. In the words we speak. In the deeds we do. What will our answer be?

Background photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

Let God Be Loud in Your Life

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I spend a lot of time writing about God’s “whispers” and how it isn’t always easy to hear what God is speaking to our hearts. During this Advent season, I’d like to expand on that notion by looking at the ways we can let God be LOUD in our lives. 

I believe that God’s voice is a constant. Always there. Always speaking to us. Never fluctuating or changing. If that’s the case, why does God’s voice seem so quiet sometimes, and other times calls to us through a megaphone? Perhaps it’s the volume of everything else in our world that affects our ability to hear God. So if you would like God to be louder in your life, spend some time thinking about what is drowning God’s voice out.

We’re exposed to a lot of noise in our life, but we have some choice in the degree to which we tune in. Lots of things demand our attention, but we don’t always have to give in to those demands. Take some time this week to make a list of all the things that you are listening to these days. Some by choice, some by habit, some by non-choice. How do each of these things make you feel? Which of these things draw you closer to God, and which of them pull you further away? 

For example, you might listen to a certain person on the news or the radio, and they leave you feeling angry or hopeless. Or maybe you have an acquaintance who is always critical and leaves you feeling down. We were created to live in harmony with God’s loving plans for us. Might I encourage you to turn down the volume of anything that clashes with that harmony? 

Taking it one step further, there may be some “noise” in your life that you want to mute altogether—those things (or people) that make it almost impossible for you to focus on the voice of God. Picture yourself holding a remote control with a mute button. Do you have the ability to silence the voices that don’t serve you? I spend a lot of time on Twitter, and there are some accounts that are very bleak and fear-mongering. Once I figured out how to mute those accounts, my Twitter timeline became much more enjoyable. Would it help you to go on a news or social media diet—or even a blackout? Or maybe you need to take a long, hard look at some toxic relationships in your life.

As you begin to lower the volume of this noise in your life, an amazing thing will begin to happen. God’s voice will automatically become louder.  All the other “stuff” you’ve been focusing on will fade away, and the messages from God (through Scripture, through the Advent story, and through your daily encounters with Jesus) will increase, filling your ears and your heart.

And if you want to crank up that volume even more? Incorporate some spiritual practices into your daily life that will continue to bring God’s voice to the forefront…loud and clear!

PRAYER: What better way to achieve this than to talk to God in prayer? Think of your day as an ongoing loving conversation with your Creator. Speak what is in your heart and be open to what you are hearing in response.

STILLNESS: 16th century mystic John of the Cross once wrote: “Silence is God’s first language.” Silence is our gift to God. A “sacred pause.” A time to stop what we’re doing and listen. To soak in God’s presence and allow ourselves to be filled up.

AWARENESS: We hear God with our hearts, through an unshakable awareness that Jesus walks with us through all that we see, and do, and experience. Focus on what matters most in your life. Feel gratitude and love dwelling in your heart. That’s where God lives. 

My prayer for you this Advent season is that you will open your heart to God’s voice and let that voice be LOUD, like the chorus of heavenly hosts singing with the angels: Glory to God in the Highest and peace to all people on earth!

Background photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

Your Part in the Advent Story

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When I was in second grade, my school did a Christmas variety show, and my class acted out the lyrics to the song “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” I was assigned the role of “Mom” from the line: “And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again.” It was a 5-second role, and I owned it! But I’m a little sad to report that in my childhood, I never had the opportunity to be in an official church Christmas pageant. No role in a nativity play. No shepherd or angel performance. Instead, I sat in the audience more than a few times…watching the beautiful story of the birth of our Savior take place on a stage from across the room. 

I wonder how many of us approach the season of Advent that same way. We’re in the audience waiting for the show to start. We want a front row seat to watch the story of the birth of Jesus and the beauty of the first Christmas. Our role is an enjoyable but passive one. 

I would encourage you to step out of the audience and join the players on the stage! You are part of God’s ongoing story of salvation. We each have an important role to play—your role is unique, and only you can play it. Speaker and author Elizabeth M. Kelly writes: “Allow the Holy Spirit to refresh a Catholic imagination within you and to remind you that you are an integral, irreplaceable part of a much larger and more important story.”

How will you play your role this Advent season and beyond? What unique aspects of love and sincerity will you bring to your performance? Who will your scene partners be? Perhaps your part in the story is providing a listening ear to a lonely friend. You may be called to provide food and warm clothes for those in need. Your part in the story may involve making room for Jesus in your heart and in your home. Unlike the innkeeper, will Jesus find in you a place to dwell and grow and shine?

Maybe you’re not one to step into the spotlight. That’s ok! There are plenty of behind-the-scenes roles to play that are just as important. Like the lighting crew up in the rafters, maybe your role is to point that spotlight on someone else, giving them confidence and encouragement to shine. Maybe you’re being called to be part of God’s “stage crew,” organizing and setting the stage for projects and programs that will help others.

However you decide to take part in God’s story, it’s important that you realize how valued and essential you are. The “Christmas Story” would not be complete without you!

Light in the Darkness

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Have you ever experienced the disorienting feeling of being plunged into darkness? Years ago my family and I were touring Echo Dell Cavern, a natural limestone cave near Hershey, Pennsylvania. The pathways through the cavern were well lit but at one point in the tour—with plenty of advanced warning—they turned off all the lights to give us a sense of how dark and deep the caves are. It was a jarring experience to be surrounded by such darkness. It was really true that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. I was OK at first, but the pitch blackness started to feel suffocating, and my heart began to race before they finally put the lights back on. What a relief to be surrounded by light! It brought to my mind the very first verses from the Book of Genesis:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
(Genesis 1:1-3)

During challenging times, it’s easy to feel as if our world is covered in darkness. We feel stifled and smothered by the blackness. It brings me comfort to remember that God created light and this light never goes away. Our experiences may leave us feeling lost in the dark, but we always have access to the light. God’s light is a promise—that there will be no more darkness. Every moment you spend with God, you are living in the light. The more you cultivate your relationship with God, the brighter your world will become, even when darkness continues to spread in your life or in the world.

What does it mean to live in the light?

LIGHT REVEALS

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

In the Bible, light represents truth and God’s revelation. On Mount Horeb, God revealed himself to Moses through the light of the burning bush. Jesus came to be that Light, so that we might know God. To live in the light is to know God and to believe that God loves us, chooses us, and blesses us. When you feel frustrated that God remains hidden, you can seek out His revelation in prayer, Scripture, nature, or loving relationships in your life. Every time you have an encounter with God, your life becomes flooded with light.

LIGHT ILLUMINATES

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Times are dark right now, and every decision we make seems fraught with consequences that bring fear and uncertainty. When we are lost in the darkness, God’s love lights the way. The light of Jesus shines on our path so we know which way we should go. Fear, temptation, doubt, or stubbornness might lead us away from the path God has chosen for us, but God’s light is always there to lead us back. Through a type of prayer called discernment, we can ask God what are the right choices to make. And we can be confident that God will lead us in the right direction.

LIGHT BANISHES DARKNESS

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?  (Psalm 27:1)

If darkness represents fear, then light is the antidote to that fear. As long as we are connected to God in our faith, we no longer have to be afraid. Our God is powerful enough to create light out of the formless void! Surely we can lean on God when we are afraid. The next time fear grips you, don’t let yourself drown in it. Keep your eyes fixed on God’s light and the dark fears will slowly recede.

LIGHT SPREADS

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. (Matthew 5:15)

I can think of no sight more inspiring and beautiful than a candlelight vigil. A crowd of people coming together, each one bearing a single candle, until the space shines bright with light and hope. No matter how dark the world around us may seem at times, we are children of light. It is our responsibility and our challenge to be light for others. To let it shine into the darkest corners of the world.

Advent is a wonderful time to reflect on the Light in the darkness. As you light the candles on your Advent wreath, turn on your Christmas tree lights, or hit the road in the search of Christmas light displays, take some time to ponder the meaning of that light. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  

My prayer for you today is that the Light of the Advent season will bring you PEACE and HOPE.

AMEN!

The Wonder of Waiting

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Advent is a season of waiting. A time to prepare for the coming of Christ. A period of anticipation. In general, how do you view the experience of waiting? Some people find it very difficult. They don’t have the patience or the trust to let the process unfold the way it’s meant to. (There are plenty of times when I fall into this category!) Research has shown that over the years people expect things to happen faster and faster. The pace of pedestrians walking on sidewalks has sped up. Road rage is more common. Waiting in line feels like agony for many people.

Other people welcome waiting because of how they choose to view it—as an act of anticipation instead of a waste of time. I have always felt that looking forward to an exciting event (a trip, a party, a special occasion) was just as enjoyable as the event itself. My husband tells me I live my life “looking forward to the next thing.” During this year of the pandemic, we’ve all been forced to put many of our plans on hold. It’s not easy, particularly in celebrating the holidays. My niece, Lucy —in her lovely optimistic way—predicted that next year, our holiday season will feel all the more joyful, because of how long we had to wait to gather with our families. Every hug will feel like a small miracle. The waiting is incredibly painful right now, but the joy that will come fills me with hope and excitement.

The season of Advent ushers in the coming of Christ, but we aren’t simply remembering that long-ago time of waiting for the birth of Jesus, something that happened 2000 years ago. Our waiting is active, and present, and alive. During Advent, there are three layers to our waiting:

  • Waiting for Jesus to be born (past)
  • Waiting for Jesus to come into our lives every day (present)
  • Waiting for Jesus to come again in glory (future)

It’s the second one—the everyday waiting—that I’m focused on these days. My college-aged sons have a car now, so when they come home from school, I never quite know when they’ll arrive. That excited feeling of wondering when they’ll walk through the door is so filled with hope. What if we approached every day with this sense of faith-filled anticipation? When or how will Christ come to us today? When will Jesus walk through the door of our hearts?

Each day brings opportunities for an encounter with our loving God…during a phone call with a friend, a walk with a family member, or an email exchange with a co-worker. Or you may find God while walking in the woods, admiring a sunset, or listening to the ocean. Christ may come to you in your art—through music, writing or any creative act.

In Latin, Advent means “coming,” not “finding.” We don’t have to go out and search for Jesus. Christ will come no matter what—that’s the core of our belief as Christians. We simply have to notice when He comes into our lives. This is a daily invitation—not just for the four weeks of Advent—but for every day throughout the year. Wake up each morning and ask yourself: “When will I encounter God today?” These moments are easy to miss when we’re preoccupied and distracted, so be awake and watchful in your waiting. Hold onto that excited feeling of waiting for a beloved family member to walk through the door, and I promise you won’t miss the moment when Jesus comes to you in your day.

Maranatha
Come, Lord Jesus!

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Taking Jesus to the Mall

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christmas mall
It’s that season again. When countless sermons and blog posts deliver the same message: we’re doing Christmas all wrong. We’re focusing on the trappings and the noise instead of the true meaning of Christmas. Through all the gift giving and party planning, we’re forgetting whose birthday it really is. The stress of planning and decorating is distracting us from what’s really important.

My reaction to these statements… THEY ARE NOT HELPFUL AT ALL!

This commentary (for you can’t even really call it advice) is not rooted in a woman’s reality. We can’t abandon these things, because it’s our job. There’s a quote you’ve probably heard by British poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy: “We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams.” (You may remember Willy Wonka saying this line in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.) Well, as women, we are the Christmas makers and we are the creators of Christmas dreams. Our job is making memories…and it’s an incredibly valuable one. Continue reading →