Tag: Advent

Called to Advent–journeying

barnstormingblog1 Comment

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
2 Corinthians 11:26-27


Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush of His hand as He passed; and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrance and hidden strength in the remembrance of Him as “in all points tempted like as we are,” bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us.
Alexander MacLaren

We are called to journey in our lives; some no further than the backyard, some to the ends of the earth, some to the moon and back. The journey is not about the miles covered but it is about the internal trek we all must make on the crooked road of our hearts, searching for that straight path back to God. Much of the journey, whether internal or external, is perilous and it is more than reassuring to find the signs that He has been down that road before us, knowing the temptations, and bearing the grief we will face.

There is but one map available and one map maker. All roads lead to home and home is where He waits for us.

To journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world’s sake – even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death – that little by little we start to come alive.
Frederick Buechner

Journeying East (from Tolkien), painting by Ted Nasmith

Called to Advent–Imploring

barnstormingblog1 Comment
photo by Josh Scholten

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20


Gentlemen, I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I move that prayer imploring the assistance of Heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business.
– Benjamin Franklin

We are humbled in our need. We are humbled in our helplessness. We are humbled in His attention directed to us when we are unworthy.

So we implore God for His assistance and reconciliation, recognizing and acknowledging our need, our helplessness, and our unworthiness. We are the sparrow on the ground, fallen from the nest, in trouble without His protecting Hand.

Hear our cry.

Called to Advent–Hoping

barnstormingblogLeave a comment

photo by Josh Scholten


Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40: 30-31

I haven’t found hope effectively marketed in a tablet, elixir, capsule or syringe, but the pharmaceutical companies certainly try. Yet every day I see young people come in to my clinic with a serious deficit of hope expecting that a pill just might make the difference for them. They have no clear purpose or sense of belonging, too often ready to toss their lives on the scrap heap. Some have already been experimenting with throwing themselves away by drinking or drugging away their fears and anxieties, or cutting or burning their skin to feel something akin to relief by controlling the pain they feel, or addicted to distortions of basic desires like food or sex.

It is discouragement, depression and disappointment that becomes a cancer that metastasizes throughout their life, overwhelming their daily experience of everything around them, destroying their joy, their smiles and laughter. It causes all hope to hemorrhage. And a pill can’t change it.

I can’t prescribe the hope described in Isaiah 40. I can’t even recommend it in the government setting in which I work. I can only show them it is possible; I can tell them that others in dire horrible circumstances, like prisoners of war, or Nazi concentration camps, have felt just as badly as they do. Despite such torture, they found their way to a time in their lives where there is purpose and meaning and light and laughter, that there always is a reason to keep on going, to survive and soar above rather than be engulfed and subdued by earthly worries.

Hope is not elusive, expensive or hidden. We need not go looking for it outside ourselves. It is within, pulsing deep in our hearts. Always has been. Always will be.


To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
G.K. Chesterton

Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged.
G.K. Chesterton

Called to Advent–Feeding

barnstormingblogLeave a comment

He has filled the hungry with good things…
Luke 1:53

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
Matthew 14:16

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
John 6:51

If there is one thing universal about human beings, it is that we must eat to grow, stay healthy, and stay alive. Feeding a hungry person is one of the most nurturing and loving actions available to us in our outreach to others. I learned this first as a nurses’ aide in a rest home when I was a teenager. The most disabled residents depended on me to feed them, bite full by bite full. I could not rush them or they might not swallow properly and could aspirate. I needed to be aware of what they liked and didn’t like or it might end up back in my lap in much less appetizing form.

Later, as a mother feeding my children, especially late at night rocking in the rocking chair, I found those times to be some of the most precious hours I ever spent with them. I was able to make a tangible difference in their lives with a gift from myself, of myself.

So too, we are fed by God–from His Word, from His Spirit, from His Hand at the Supper as He breaks the bread, from His Body. Our eyes are opened, our hearts burn within us.

But the ironic truth is that with the Incarnation, the world–we mere human beings–fed and nourished God Himself. He thrived, grew, and lived among us because His mother nourished Him from her own body and His earthly father had a trade that made it possible to feed his family.

Feeding others as we are fed. Feeding God when He chose to be helpless in our hands, trusting and needing us as much as we trust and need Him.


The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.
J.I. Packer

Called to Advent–Expecting

barnstormingblogLeave a comment

The Visitation by Mariotto Albertinelli

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.
Psalm 5:3

Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of spiritual life.
Simone Weil

During Advent we are pregnant with anticipated possibility, expectant like Mary and Elizabeth, the new life growing inside us about to change us forever. And like Mary and Elizabeth, we are not in this alone, but are expectant side by side, in a community of support. Together we celebrate the coming dawn of love and life that will overshadow the ever-present darkness of hatred, suffering and death.

Be a womb. Be a dwelling for God. Be surprised.
Loretta Ross-Gotta

I treasure (Mary’s) story because it forces me to ask: When the mystery of God’s love breaks through into my consciousness, do I run from it? Or am I virgin enough to respond from my deepest, truest self, and say a “yes” that will change me forever?
Kathleen Norris

Called to Advent–Devoting

barnstormingblog2 Comments

Da Vinci Study of Woman

…and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
1Timothy 5:10

One of my greatest concerns about our modern age is the misdirected devotion to all things material, trivial and shallow. A walk through the grocery check out line is most enlightening about where our priorities lie. Mainstream magazines have increasingly become tabloids and tabloids have become even worse than before. There is more skin and cleavage revealed in the check out line than on most beaches. And these magazines are not being marketed to men (look for them at the magazine racks reading about sports, the latest hot cars and newest electronic gadgetry).

Why do women revel in stories of other women’s cosmetic choices, fashion fiascos, romantic disasters and heartbreaks, then move on to devour articles on ten ways to *whatever* is the latest pleasure fad, and finally how to lose 10 pounds in five days?

Where is the cover story of the faithful widow who is well known for her good deeds for the poor, her hospitality to strangers, her servant heart in tending to her neighbors, her devotion to caring for children apart from her own? Where is the feature on self-sacrificing individuals who live simply (not because it is the latest trend), eat sensibly (not because their doctor told them they must), who don’t have a magazine named after them (sorry Martha and Oprah), and who give themselves away day in and day out?

For that matter, where is the front page story of two transient travelers refused housing, with a teenage mother having no choice but to deliver her first born in an animal shed with only starlight for illumination?

It just might make interesting reading during those ten minutes in the check out stand.

And is something worthy of our devotion.

What think we of Christ? Is He altogether glorious in our eyes, and precious to our hearts? May Christ be our joy, our confidence, our all. May we daily be made more like to Him, and more devoted to His service.
Matthew Henry– 17th century Presbyterian minister

Called By Advent–Accepting

barnstormingblogLeave a comment
Leonardo Da Vinci--The Annunciation

Luke 1:38
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

Advent is described as an anticipatory time of waiting and preparing for the Child to be born. There is almost a passive sweetness in just “letting it happen” as it was written and taught to us. But Advent also reminds us of His eventual return and as such it becomes a call to action. We must get off our duffs and get ready.

There are scores of words that describe what we are called to do while we wait, preparing for the second Advent: believing, blessing, comforting, departing, enduring, expecting, feeding, forgiving, glorifying, hoping, identifying, journeying, keeping, loving, listening, marching, naming, obeying, pondering, quieting, renewing, repenting, stretching, trembling, treasuring, trusting, unfolding, voicing, watching, worshiping, exalting, yielding, filling with zeal. It’s more than plenty to keep us busy.

There is nothing passive about Mary’s response to the angel’s message. She actively and willingly is accepting the call to become someone new.

And so must we.

May it be.

So be it.

O Little Child Christmas Carol

barnstormingblog1 Comment
Adoration of the Child by Gerrit van Honthorst

This is a lovely carol written by Lora Pappajohn and Alan Woodland, played by 11 year old Emilie Whitman on her 2003 CD “Emilie’s Christmas”. This sweet lullaby deserves to be heard again and again, year after year, so here it is:

Lyrics:

Oh Little Child

Oh little child it’s Christmas night
And the sky is filled with glorious light
Lay your soft head so gently down
It’s Christmas night in Bethlehem town.

Chorus:
Alleluia the angels sing
Alleluia to the king
Alleluia the angels sing
Alleluia to the king.

Sleep while the shepherds find their way
As they kneel before you in the golden hay
For they have brought you a woolly lamb
On Christmas night in Bethlehem.

Chorus

Sleep till you wake at the break of day
With the sun’s first dawning ray
You are the babe, who’ll wear the crown
On Christmas morn in Bethlehem town.

Chorus

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. Alleluia