Simply Trusting

Advent Week 1: Hope Hope is not easy to write about, but as we begin this season of Advent, it has been helpful to me to reflect why hope is difficult. I hope that my reflections encourage you in some small way.  I have always been a do-it-myself kind of person. If someone needs to step up and take action, I will feel compelled to do it. If a better grade can be achieved, I’ll figure out what I could have done to get it. If a system or program could be more efficient, I’ll find a better way. The last two years have been very frustrating for me. It seems as though grief, loss, pain and so many other things, are rampant. The other day I saw an instagram post that encouraged readers to do “whatever felt right, because nothing matters anymore.” Yikes. It resonates, though. I wish that a word, deed or action could do away with the problems racking the world. And yet, I find myself wondering if these problems - pain, heartache, grief and loss - had been lurking beneath the surface, until...

What does it mean to you to prepare? In some seasons of my life, I have been the textbook example of procrastination. As I get older, however, this is something I am working hard to change. I have learned, sometimes the hard way, that in order to be able to give all that is being asked in a given situation, I need to come to the table prepared. Prepared to listen, to speak, to act, to learn, and so much more. What intentional steps do you take to prepare your heart for worship? Are you aware of the way that your heart and mind adjust to allow you to fully participate? Advent is a season of preparation. For you dear friend, the four weeks leading up to Christmas may be the busiest days of the year. My hope is that by pausing together to think, reflect and worship during the coming weeks, we can take back this ground, and prepare our hearts to more fully celebrate the coming of the One Who has done everything for you and me. Last year, the discipline of reflection and encouragement was i...