Originally published on EvoFaith blog here. Links to a video and audio version can be found at the bottom of the post.
Have you ever experienced a ‘thank you’ that didn’t leave you feeling appreciated? Or perhaps you’ve seen someone use thanksgiving as a way to show everyone else how specially ‘blessed’ by God they were? Clearly not all thankfulness is created equal.
Many years ago, back in my Pentecostal fundamentalist days, I attended a healing conference that was hosting a well-known international evangelist and healer. During the first session we were encouraged to mill around and meet the other delegates. I ended up talking with two other young men (I was a young man back then). The one was rather quiet, but his friend was extremely vocal, launching in to a monologue about the giftedness and God-blessedness of his quiet friend, who was clearly embarrassed. He also kept mentioning how blessed and thankful he was to be able to minister with his quiet and gifted friend. The not-very-subtle implication was that he must clearly also be gifted and favoured by God to have been placed in partnership with such a gifted spiritual giant. His words expressed thanksgiving, but his attitude and tone revealed something very different. Again—not all thankfulness is created equal.
There is a lot that is written about the power of thanksgiving. There is no question that a habit of thankfulness increases our sense of contentment, deepens our experience of pleasure and happiness, and builds better relationships. I wholeheartedly support anything that empowers us to be more automatically thankful in our lives. It is for good reason that children are taught from the moment they can speak to say thank you.
But there is also a limit to thankfulness. Especially when it comes to spiritual practice. In a much-misused parable in Luke 18:10-14, Jesus describes two different prayers. This is what it says:
Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
While this parable might justifiably be used to show the dangers of self-righteousness, it should not be stretched—as it often is—to promote self-loathing as a Christian virtue. Such ‘worm-theology’ does no one any good and misses the point of the parable, which is that religious people can often seem righteous outwardly, but in their arrogance, judgment of others, and lack of compassion they are further from God’s Reign than those who recognise their need to grow.
But there is something else that is illustrated in this parable—and this is where it begins to speak into our evolutionary spirituality. The Pharisee’s prayer expresses a strong thankfulness. But he is thankful for the wrong things and in the wrong way from Christ’s perspective.
First of all, he credits God for his station in life. He believes that he has been chosen by God for special favour which ensures that he is morally, personally, religiously, and probably economically better than others. To use the language of today’s toxic religion, he considers himself ‘blessed.’ But these are the wrong things to be thankful for. They are not signs of God’s blessing or favour. They simply represent that in an unequal world he was lucky enough to have been born into a situation where he could enjoy greater comfort, status, and respect than others. Notice that Jesus specifically points out that, when he prays this prayer, he is standing by himself. His thanksgiving has not won him any friends, it seems—probably because it has been nothing more than empty words that he spoke to build up his ego. His thankfulness has not changed him or inspired him to any kind of action that could touch or benefit anyone else.
In my experience, prayers of thanks are often like this. We look for good things in our life, attribute them to God’s divine intervention, and then give thanks as a way to confirm for ourselves that we are the recipients of God’s favour, God’s blessing.
And, if we can ascribe human feelings to God for a moment, how might God be feeling about this kind of thankfulness? I can’t say for sure, but my instinct suggests about as impressed as God was by the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable.
You see, true thankfulness can never be words alone. Thankfulness should always be a cause for us to pause and think—to become more thoughtful. Firstly, we should be far more thoughtful and honest about why we might enjoy good fortune, and be much slower to attribute our ‘blessings’ to a God who is impressed with us for any reason.
But secondly, authentic thankfulness usually makes us more thoughtful about what we should do with our good fortune. And the answer, while it may take many forms, is really only one thing: we should share it. There’s an internet meme going around that speaks to exactly this point: “When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence.”
In an evolutionary spirituality, there is no Divine Judge to impress with our obedience, righteousness, and religious purity. There is no benefit to legalistically following religious rules and convincing ourselves that whatever good fortune we receive is God’s reward for our purity and holiness. The evolutionary God does not bless some and curse others.
Rather, whatever good fortune we may enjoy is a call to thoughtfulness and generosity. It is an opportunity to recognise that we have received an advantage for no reason other than that this is how an evolutionary universe works. In this particular facet of our lives, we find ourselves in a position to overcome life’s challenges and contribute to the growth, connection, and creativity of the world. And with this good fortune comes an invitation—and, in my opinion, a responsibility—to share. To quote the Spider-Man movies, “With great power (or in this case, with great advantage) comes great responsibility.”
No ‘blessing’ is ever given to a single individual or group. Whatever is given is always meant to be shared. There is no exceptionalism in authentic evolutionary spirituality. There is just each of us recognising—through thanksgiving—what opportunities and resources we have to contribute to the common good. And then there is the response, out of this awareness, of thoughtful, generous, contribution to the people and society around us in whatever way we can.
Thanksgiving is a profoundly effective discipline. And it is one that I encourage us all to nurture and develop as intentionally and consistently as possible. But it should never be an excuse to separate ourselves from others—especially those in need. It should never be a reason to consider ourselves better, or more ‘blessed’, than others. It should always lead us to be more compassionate, generous, and considerate—to shift from mere thankfulness to a deep thoughtfulness in which we consider carefully how our ‘blessing’ may become a ‘blessing’ to those around us. And when thankfulness does this, it not only enriches our world. It enriches our lives with an ever-expanding sense of contentment, joy, and connection. And that’s something to be thankful for.
This article can also be found in a YouTube video and for audio on a podcast episode.
John van de Laar is also running a free webinar “How to Thrive as church in the New World – 7 Essential Paradigm Shifts”. Sign-ups for the webinar can be done here.
Celtic Prayer Cards include 10 prayers inspired by ancient Celtic saints like Patrick or contemporary Celtic writers like John O’Donohue. A short reflection on the back of each card will introduce you to the Celtic Christian tradition, along with prayers by Christine Sine and beautiful imagery crafted by Hilary Horn. Celtic Prayer Cards can be used year-round or incorporated into various holidays. Available in a single set of 10 cards, three sets, or to download.
by Carol Dixon
When I was a teenager in 1964 a pop song by Petula Clark soared into the charts in the UK. Although it had slightly different words, the original was a translation of a hymn by a German theologian written in the early 20th century. It was called Thank You For Giving Me the Morning. Maybe some of you remember it.
As my American friends are caught up in the hustle and bustle towards Thanksgiving day I have been thinking quite a bit about being thankful. In the UK we don’t usually celebrate Thanksgiving Day so I don’t really feel qualified to say much about it. But the need for thanksgiving in all our lives is really important which is one of the reasons I have been so encouraged by many of our Godspacelight themes recently. We seem to have been focusing on giving thanks from harvest time, celebrated at the end of September, right through to Thanksgiving day on 24 November (after which we will be looking forward to Advent – another uplifting theme). I loved the post a few weeks ago that was the invitation to ponder daily on at least one thing to thank God for as advised by Meister Eckhart:
If the only prayer you pray in your entire life is Thank you God, that would suffice. Thankfulness is one of the most life-giving thoughts we can have. Let us determine to start each day with positive affirmation such as Thank you God for the gift of life and end the day with thanksgiving for just one positive thing the day has brought us.
Sometimes in our lives when everything seems to be against us it is difficult to be thankful, but if we manage to do so our lives will be transformed. This has nothing to do with pretending everything in the garden is rosy when it isn’t, or not being honest with God about how we really feel, but trying to focus on one gift the day has brought, however small.
The Bible has quite a lot to say about thankfulness and one of my favourite passages is from the book of Habakkuk where the prophet confronts God about the state of the world he is living in. Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah and lived in uncertain times with wars, food shortages, and people in power who didn’t seem to care. Sound familiar? God’s people were divided and those in the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been overrun by the Assyrian army. The kingdom of Judah where Habakkuk lived was also threatened by the Babylonians who were about to capture Jerusalem and take many of the key citizens off to slavery in exile. But instead of turning away from God, as many of his contemporaries had, Habakkuk confronted God with a series of questions. He didn’t get the answers he might have hoped for but as he listened to God’s overview of the situation he began to see the wider picture. And so, he was able to sing his song of thankfulness and praise despite his current difficulties and turned from despair to hope. Here is a precis of their discussion.
Habakkuk Complains of Injustice
2 O Lord, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us? 3 Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you stand to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are all around me, and there is fighting and quarrelling everywhere. 4 The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.
5 Keep watching the nations around you, and you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you will not believe when you hear about it. 6 I am bringing the Babylonians to power, those fierce, restless people. They are marching out across the world to conquer other lands. 7 They spread fear and terror, and in their pride they are a law to themselves…9 “Their armies advance in violent conquest, and everyone is terrified as they approach…They treat kings with contempt and laugh at high officials. No fortress can stop them— 11 they sweep on like the wind and are gone, these men whose power is their god.
Habakkuk Complains to the Lord Again
12 Lord, from the very beginning YOU are God. You are my God, holy and eternal. My God and protector, you have chosen the Babylonians and made them strong so that they can punish us. 13 But how can you stand these treacherous, evil men? Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong. So why are you silent while they destroy people who are more righteous than they are?
The Lord replied: 4‘Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.’”…7But before you know it, you that have conquered others will be in debt yourselves and be forced to pay interest. Enemies will come and make you tremble. They will plunder you! 8 You have plundered the people of many nations, but now those who have survived will plunder you because of the murders you have committed and because of your violence against the people of the world and its cities.[c]
9 You are doomed!
Habakkuk finally got the picture and ended the conversation by saying:
‘I will wait in thankfulness and hope for the time to come when God will vindicate his people.
He even burst into song:
17Even though the fig trees have no fruitand no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain… 18I will still be joyful and glad, because the Lord God is my savior.“
and he goes on to say –
9‘The Sovereign Lord gives me strength. He makes me sure-footed as a deer and keep-s me safe on the mountains.’
One of the great assets we have as Christians is that in Jesus we can learn to give thanks however we are feeling. One of my favourite hymns in our church hymn book is ‘Give to Me Lord a Thankful Heart’.
A prayer for Thanksgiving day
May God give you – for every storm, a rainbow.
For every tear a smile, for every care a promise,
and a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share,
for every sigh a song, and an answer to each prayer. [Author unknown]
A Celtic Blessing (traditional)
When days are dark,
may the blessing of light be on you,
light without and light within.
When the world is cold,
may the blessed sunshine shine upon you
and warm your heart,
till it glows like a great peat fire.
And the blessing of God, three in one,
rest on you and remain with you forever. Amen.
It’s just about time to celebrate Advent and Christmas. Let Godspace be a resource to you as you prepare! We have many devotionals, gifts, prayer cards, free downloads, retreats – and more – to offer. Check it out in our shop under the category of Advent!
Yesterday was the beginning of Advent for most of the Western church. This year it is a full four weeks long as Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. I love Advent, and though I thoroughly enjoy starting with Celtic Advent and a 40-day preparation for Christmas, it is really this weekend that marked my real Advent focus. I pulled out my icons and other Advent images. I created a new Advent garden; we purchased our Christmas tree and set up our Advent wreath on the dining room table. I love lighting the appropriate candles each morning as we eat breakfast and reflect on the season.
Ecuadorian Madonna and Child Church of Annunciation Nazareth, photo Anneke Geel
My theme for this year is Proclaiming Justice, Seeking Peace Through Advent. There are so many places that are caught up in the horrors of war, so many deaths from mass shootings here in the U.S. and so much suffering caused by our rapidly changing climate that I find myself approaching this season with feelings of joy and expectation but also of grief and lament. As we look at the Advent story this seems appropriate as the story of Mary’s pregnancy and the birth of Jesus is a story of joy and lament.
Guatemala, Madonna and Child Church of Annunciation Nazareth, photo Anneke Geel
Mary was a rebel, who shouted out her defiant and outspoken words of justice and freedom from the Empire of the rich and powerful in the Magnificat. This Freedom Song for the Poor is sometimes referred to as The Christmas Carol of Justice. Unfortunately we rarely hear it recited in its entirety during the build-up to Christmas. We want it to feel magical and radiate light, hope, joy and peace and its message of judgement and the upending of the status quo social order. Mary believed her unborn child was the promised Messiah who would bring justice to the world. She would have raised him with that in mind. His rebellious spirit was seeded in his unborn body and grew throughout his childhood as Mary and I think Joseph too, instilled more of their rebellious ideas in his heart.
Indonesian Madonna, Church of the Annunciation Nazareth, Photo Anneke Geel
The German theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer recognized the revolutionary nature of Mary’s song. Before being executed by the Nazis, Bonheoffer spoke these words in a sermon during Advent 1933:
“The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings.…This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.” (quoted from The Radical Subversive Message of the Magnificat.)
There is some evidence that the Magnificat was banned in certain times and places by oppressive dictatorships. During British rule in India, the singing of the Magnificat in church was prohibited because of its inflammatory lyrics. So, on the final day of British rule in India, Gandhi, who was not a Christian, requested that this song be read in all places where the British flag was being lowered (from Craig Greenfield). It is possible that dictatorial governments of Guatemala, Argentina and El Salvador found Mary’s proclamation of God’s special concern for the poor so revolutionary and such a threat to authority, that they also banned any public recitation of the Magnificat. These are radical words; words that still have the potential to topple governments and bring down the powerful from their thrones.
Japanese Madonna and child, Church of the Annunciation Nazareth, Photo Anneke Geel
I could not help but think about this as I looked through the photos sent to me by a friend who recently visited the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth where there is an incredible collection of images from around the world of Madonna and Child. So many of these images come from countries where there continues to be injustice shown to the poor and the marginalized. What difference would it make if we took the Magnificat seriously and lived our lives according to its revolutionary words?
Murals Madonna and Child Church of Annunciation Nazareth, photo Anneke Geel
Read through the Magnificat, here quoted from The Voice. Spend time this week reflecting on this subversive message. Examine the images in this post. You might even like to look at the more extensive collection here. Mary’s message is spoken across all cultures and in each place calls us to follow a radical Jesus. In what ways do you feel God calling you to speak out through this season of Advent for those who are disadvantaged?
Mary: My soul lifts up the Lord!
47 My spirit celebrates God, my Liberator!
48 For though I’m God’s humble servant,
God has noticed me.
Now and forever,
I will be considered blessed by all generations.
49 For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
holy is God’s name!
50 From generation to generation,
God’s lovingkindness endures
for those who revere Him.
51 God’s arm has accomplished mighty deeds.
The proud in mind and heart,
God has sent away in disarray.
52 The rulers from their high positions of power,
God has brought down low.
And those who were humble and lowly,
God has elevated with dignity.
53 The hungry—God has filled with fine food.
The rich—God has dismissed with nothing in their hands.
54 To Israel, God’s servant,
God has given help,
55 As promised to our ancestors,
remembering Abraham and his descendants in mercy forever.
Only a few more days to sign up!!! Join Christine Sine for a time of quiet reflection on December 3rd, 2022. Slow down the busyness of the season and nourish your soul with contemplative focus and reflection. All the details can be found here:
https://godspacelight.com/event/advent-quiet-day/
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Thank you for praying with St Andrews Episcopal Church !
L’ajuda Em Vindra (I Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills)
–Music copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
Što Oko Ne Vidje (What No Eye has Seen) – Taizé song
–By the Taizé community, copyright 2010, all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756
Within our Darkest Night (Dans Nos Obscurites) – Taizé song
By J. Berthier
–Copyright 1991, all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus
–Written for The University Of Notre Dame Folk Choir by Steven C.
Warner, released on the album “Prophets of Joy”
Copyright 1996 World Library Publications, all rights reserved Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
by Tom Sine
“Young people are a more powerful force than ever in the UN climate summit, the UN’s youngest climate advisor tells BBC News in Egypt.
Greta Thunberg has skipped the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting, calling a forum for ‘greenwashing’ as she continues to ask if her generation can live in a sustainable future?
But young people from countries at high risk from climate change say they are ‘calling it out’ from inside…Vanessa Nakate from Uganda will tell governments to wash their ‘oil-stained hands.’
Additionally, for the first time ever young people have had a Youth Pavilion where they met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (COP27:Without Greta, activists make waves at climate summit, BBC, 2022).
The Economist had already described their view of our likely future before the conference began.
To accept that the world’s average temperature might rise by more than 1.5°C, declared the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands in 2015, would be to sign the ‘death warrant’ of small, low-lying countries such as his. To widespread surprise, the grandees who met in Paris that year, at a climate conference like the one starting in Egypt next week, accepted his argument. They enshrined the goal of limiting global warming to about 1.5°C in the Paris agreement, which sought to co-ordinate national efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.”
No one remembered to tell the firing squad, however. The same countries that piously signed the Paris agreement have not cut their emissions enough to meet its targets; in fact global emissions are still growing. The world is already about 1.2°C hotter than it was in pre-industrial times. Given the lasting impact of greenhouse gases already emitted, and the impossibility of stopping emissions overnight, there is no way Earth can now avoid a temperature rise of more than 1.5°C. There is still hope that the overshoot may not be too big, and may be only temporary, but even these consoling possibilities are becoming ever less likely.
The response to all this should be a dose of realism. Many activists are reluctant to admit that 1.5°C is a lost cause. But failing to do so prolongs the mistakes made in Paris, where the world’s governments adopted a Herculean goal without any plausible plan for reaching it. The delegates gathering in Egypt should be chastened by failure, not lulled by false hope. They need to be more pragmatic, and face up to some hard truths.”
The Economist urges more immediate action.
First, cutting emissions will require much more money. Roughly speaking, global investment in clean energy needs to triple from today’s $1trn a year, and be concentrated in developing countries, which generate most of today’s emissions. Solar and wind power can be cheaper to build and run than more polluting types, but grids need to be rebuilt to cope with the intermittency of the sun and the wind. Concessionary lending and aid from rich countries are essential and a moral imperative. However, the sums required are far greater than what might plausibly be squeezed out of Western donors or multilateral organizations such as the World Bank.”
Those of us who are people of faith need to aggressively join those in Gen Next, like Young Evangelicals For Climate Action as well as the many young secular environmental activists who are aggressively responding to this huge environmental crisis as we race into the troubled 2030s!
Let me know what your ideas are for joining those aggressively working to preserve this good creation in the coming decade as an essential Christian practice.
Check out 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving This Decade of Accelerating Change. It is designed with questions at the end of chapters to be used as a group study book to creatively respond to the climate crisis and other challenges in this time of concerning change.
I welcome your response: email me at twsine@gmail.com
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When I am depressed, threatened, overwhelmed, insecure, or facing failure and regret I feel tired. I find myself yearning to lose myself in the refuge of sleep. Sleep, both literal and metaphorical, is the escape we seek from a difficult and broken world. And for some of us sleep is a blessed mercy; a relief from trauma that is just too much for us to face or overcome. I do not judge—I have been there and I celebrate whatever helps a human being to get through the day and find some measure of peace and maybe even joy.
But sleep is not our natural state. Nor is it our preferred state. It is designed to support and empower life. It is the place of restoration that enables us to face another day and enter the world ready to receive the gifts it offers and to share whatever gifts we may.
Sleep is never a state that can be permanently sustained. Even the most asleep, the most traumatised, and those who most seek protection and safety in hiding, must eventually wake up—albeit involuntarily—to face waking life.
For all of us, whatever our relationship with sleep—or sleep-living—may be, Advent offers an invitation. We can choose how we will see and experience the world even when it is threatening and unsafe. And the key is to pay attention—the learning of which is one of the key gifts of this Advent season.
Jesus’ Call to Stay Alert
In Matthew 24, Jesus spoke about the chaos and trauma that awaited Israel because of the growing thirst for rebellion. Jewish society was deeply divided and that made them vulnerable. Some preferred to retreat from society in an attempt to escape their oppression. Some preferred to accommodate and cooperate with the Roman occupiers in an attempt to find security. And some sought to find freedom by overthrowing the Romans and reestablishing an independent Jewish state. All of these responses were, in their own way, a kind of sleepwalking—a way for the people to avoid the complexities of their reality and put a buffer between them and their struggles. And so Jesus called the people to stay alert.
The heart of authentic spirituality is this alertness. It is a willingness to see the reality of what’s happening in the world and then look deeper to see the larger spiritual realities at play within the world’s movements and events.
For Jesus, the significant event that he could see on the horizon was the Roman invasion. He could see that the destruction of the Temple was inevitable and he knew the suffering that always accompanies such things. But beneath this trauma was the reality that God’s presence was there in the midst of the chaos. God’s reign was still seeking to bring justice and love into the world even though the opposite seemed to be the case. The world’s power games were being exposed and the failure of political processes—whether defending the status quo or overthrowing it—to bring about a world of human flourishing was being revealed. As a result, people were being given a choice to opt out and follow a different way: the way of the Beatitudes, of the Sermon on the Mount, of love and justice, of kindness and peace. In the face of the turmoil to come, Jesus called his followers to refuse to play by the world’s rules of dominance, division, and destruction. And he showed them that to recognise God’s reign at work and to see the coming of the Christ (the eternal presence of love and justice that fills the universe) they would need to be alert.
Staying Alert
In the reading from Matthew’s Gospel that is set for Advent Sunday, Jesus offers guidelines to help his disciples navigate the turbulent events that he knew were coming. His suggestions do not require some special skill in analysing the forces at work. They’re not about joining some revolutionary movement to change the world. Rather, they’re about paying attention where we are—to the grasshopper and the grass; to the sky and the birds and the rivers and trees; to the insects and flowers; to our own heartbeat and breathing and longings. Because there, in the paying of attention, is where we discover the divine presence. That’s where we catch God’s vision of a new world.
There, in the paying of attention, we can know that our pain, trauma, nightmares and demons are not forever. Even if we need to spend most of our lives asleep to escape their horrors, we can know that ultimately life and wholeness will win out. Or, if we’ve found a way to stay mostly awake and live with a deep awareness and alertness, in those times when we need to sleep for a moment, we can know that we rest in the divine presence. We can sleep in the knowledge that the universe is working on a different schedule from our short lives—a schedule of billions of years—to become more connected, creative, and compassionate.
How to Pay Attention
Jesus spoke his words of warning and invitation decades before the Roman invasion actually happened. He knew that we don’t easily learn to pay attention in those times when life makes us want to find refuge in sleep. We need to learn to live awake when it is easy to be awake and threats are still distant. But whether we are trying to find evidence of God’s presence in the midst of turmoil or simply doing the work of spiritual practice to learn to live our most sacred lives in a world at peace, the process of learning to pay attention is the same. Here are some suggestion to develop our spiritual alertness:
Begin with Yourself
The first step, as always in spiritual practice, is to know yourself as you are. We need to do the work to identify what keeps us from alertness and what puts us to sleep. We need to identify the things that dull our senses. We need to recognise the literal or metaphorical drugs that blur our vision and keep us from seeing the Spirit of beauty, truth, and goodness that cannot be destroyed by trauma, violence, or evil. And we need to identify and take hold of the things that enable us to be alert and see beyond the surface realities of our world to the deeper spiritual forces at work. We need to nurture our capacity to pay attention, even if only for a few moments at a time.
Find One Thing to Wonder At
One of the best ways to learn to open our eyes to the vision of God’s presence is to make a habit of looking for things to wonder about. In the moments when we are fully awake, even though we may feel pain, fear and the desperate need to return to sleep, we can find at least one awe-inspiring thing to notice. We can cultivate the habit of regularly identifying something to honour and give thanks for. Whether it is a blade of grass, a grasshopper’s jaws, a bird’s sweet song, or the curious shape of a cloud, doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we learn to notice these natural things and see the Divine presence in them.
Recognise That the Darkness Cannot Extinguish the Light
And then, when we have learned to see more deeply in the simple things around us, we can use that ability to see even in the ugliness, deception, and evil that love, life, and light remain and the darkness does not and cannot extinguish them. We can take note of the evidence of the Divine Spirit moving in the chaos and bringing forth life.
It’s not easy to learn to pay attention and stay alert in this turbulent world, but it is worth the effort. The season of Advent is the perfect school to train us to live awake a little more intentionally and consistently. It’s important to remember though, that we cannot live awake all the time, we cannot pay attention completely, and some of us need more sleep than others. Some of us will live in an almost constant state of awareness, only retreating into literal sleep when needed. Others among us will need to spend most of our lives in the safety of living asleep, only ‘waking up’ and becoming aware when it is absolutely necessary. But whichever it is for us, paying attention and seeing the divine presence even in the midst of the pain can help us to live a little easier and sleep a little more restoratively. Then slowly, over time, we may find that we are able to awaken a little more and pay attention just a little better. And the sharp edge of our trauma will grow just a little duller and the pain a little less piercing.
This article is the first chapter of a new resource for Advent created by John van de Laar titled Vision Quest – See more clearly. Check it out here on his website Sacredise!
Join Christine Sine for a time of quiet reflection on December 3rd, 2022. Slow down the busyness of the season and nourish your soul with contemplative focus and reflection. All the details can be found here:
https://godspacelight.com/event/advent-quiet-day/
The Season of Advent is a new beginning! A fresh start! It’s the beginning of the new church year. So Happy New Year! (Traditional Advent is the four weeks before Christmas and starts this Sunday.) The Season of Advent is an opportunity to pay attention and notice what God is up to in our world and in us! It’s an opportunity to notice what God is doing in our own lives.
My pilgrimage planning got me thinking about all the Pilgrims, all the Travelers in the Christmas Story.
Mary going to see Elizabeth when she found out she was pregnant.
Mary & Joseph going to Bethlehem because of the census.
The Shepherds making a short pilgrimage into town from their hillside camp after they are surprised by the angels announcement of Jesus’s arrival.
The Magi, who journeyed the farthest, making a long pilgrimage trip to find the newborn king. Their pilgrimage took them two years to finish and then they had to journey back to their homes.
I haven’t been on a pilgrimage to the real Bethlehem yet. But on a pilgrimage to Assisi in 2015, our family got to experience a bit of what it might have been like to journey to Bethlehem. Our family went to Assisi to discover the home of St. Francis, who hosted the very first creche/nativity scene. We found out that several little towns around Assisi reenact the Christmas story by becoming Bethlehem for several days each December. We drove our rental van down several winding country roads to join other Italian pilgrims ready to experience the wonder of the birth of Jesus. The streets of this little town wound up and up and the community members had decorated them with shops that might have been real in the days of Jesus. Everyone participated. The streets were crowded, all of us ready to find baby Jesus.
Italian Mary and Joseph
Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem and a journey towards seeing Jesus’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
What would an Advent Pilgrimage look like?
On pilgrimage, the journey is just as important as the destination. Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem and a journey towards seeing Jesus’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
As pilgrims, we watch and prepare to be interrupted.
Are we willing, like Mary, to let God interrupt us this Advent season?
Are we willing, like Joseph and the Shepherds, to let God surprise us?
Can we be willing, like this couple and the Magi, to take the pilgrimage to Bethlehem even when we don’t know what to expect along the way?
Italian Bethlehem
What would an ADVENT PILGRIMAGE look like for you this year? I’m not talking about going somewhere exotic or even taking a trip somewhere. But what if we saw the season of Advent as a pilgrimage to Bethlehem. How would I need to prepare? What things would I need to consider?
How might the SEASON OF ADVENT be a PILGRIMAGE?
What am I seeking?
What do I need?
How can I plan to pay attention?
Spend some time this weekend thinking about this. Ask Jesus to show you .
You can print out the ADVENT COLORING SHEET and use it to consider the thing or things you need or want for your Advent Pilgrimage. You might use each of these journal prompts and ask “How do I need___________ this Advent? ” or “What does ___________look like for me this Advent?”
Direction
Peace and Pause
Rest and Sabbath
Adventure
Celebration
Receiving or Discovering Treasure or Gift
Let Jesus surprise you! Let God interrupt you! Become an Advent Pilgrim.
What do you need this Advent?
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
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