Most authentic

the ultimate creative act is to express what is most authentic and individual about you.
- eileen m. clegg

Whom have we

The Nativity, by Gerard van Honthorst (1590-1656).

Whom have we, Lord, like you?
The Great One who became small, the Wakeful who slept,
The Pure One who was baptized, the Living One who died,
The King who abased himself to ensure honor for all.
Blessed is your honor!

It is right that man should acknowledge your divinity,
It is right for heavenly beings to worship your humanity.
The heavenly beings were amazed to see how small you became,
And earthly ones to see how exalted.

-- Excerpt from a Nativity Hymn of Ephrem the Syrian (4th-century AD)

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! – Philippians 2:5-8

Merry Christmas!

Becoming

It behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

To adore

My favorite Christmas hymn is “O Come Let us Adore Him.” I’ve had a difficult time articulating just why this invitation to adore “Christ the Lord” is a draw for me, but the following quote brings me closer to some understanding. I certainly recognize my inner poverty, and think I am finally ready to begin to lose myself in the depths and richness of unitive oneness with God.

“To adore. That means to become lost in the unfathomable, to plunge in to the Inexhaustible, to find peace in the Incorruptible… It is to offer oneself to the all consuming and transforming Fire of divine live, to let oneself consciously and voluntarily be annihilated in the measure that one becomes aware of one’s inner poverty.

To adore means to give of one’s deepest to One whose depth has no end …

To adore is to lose oneself unitively in God.”

– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the Divine Milieu

May your holiday season include depth, treasure, unity.

Only this moment

Begin doing what you want to do *now.*

We are not living in eternity.

We have only this moment,

sparkling like a star in our hand

and melting like a snowflake.

Let us use it before it is too late.

– Marie Beyon Ray

snowflake images from www.snowcrystals.com

Sense of humor

I appreciate many of the comments in the Breakpoint commentary written by Charles Colson. My kids – best offspring any parent could hope for – had to endure me often reading Colson’s commentary at suppertimes. (I felt I really needed to expose them to a different worldview than the one they lived in daily at school!) In the Dec 4, 2008 Breakpoint (see http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=10652),Colson writes about humor in times of crisis:

“Elton Trueblood, in his 1964 book The Humor of Christ, paints a picture of Christ as a deft comedian—a master at wordplay.

Trueblood writes: “Anyone who reads the Synoptic Gospels . . . might be expected to see that Christ laughed, and that He expected others to laugh.” He frequently used humor and wit to make His point, as He did when He mentioned a camel going through the eye of a needle. When He said that the Pharisees strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, He was making a good pun because the Aramaic words for camel and gnat are almost identical.

If anyone had cause for being a bit down, it was Jesus. His was no easy life, facing satanic opposition and human scorn. Yet Jesus could laugh. Why, because He knew that His sufferings could not compare with the joy that awaited Him. And the same should be true for all of us.

Trueblood says, ‘The Christian is [merry], not because he is blind to injustice and suffering, but because he is convinced that these, in the light of the divine sovereignty, are never ultimate.’”

Isn’t it fun to think of Jesus as having a keen sense of humor?

And I find it so wonderful to realize that we too can embrace humor: when we know that our 'ultimate' is good.

Be still

“You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”

– Indira Gandhi

I tend to rest less during this month of December, with all the readying for and celebrating of the holidays. But as my aging-body energy is ever more limited, I really must more intentionally REST body, soul, and spirit.

Body and soul: Our body and psyche needs sleep! Lack of sleep has all sorts of ill-effects, but a big one is irritability and overwrought emotions, even though ‘tis the season to be jolly.’

Imaging studies show that lack of sleep can lead to greater activation of the brain's emotional centers and disrupt the brain circuits that tame emotional responses. "The emotional centers of the brain were over 60% more reactive under conditions of sleep deprivation than in subjects who had obtained a normal night of sleep" reports NIH-funded scientists Dr. Matthew Walker and his colleagues at the U. of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Medical School. The findings suggest that sleep restores the brain's emotional circuits and prepares people for the next day's challenges and social interactions. (see http://www.nih.gov/news/research_matters/november2007/11052007sleep.htm)

Soul and spirit: Certainly physical rest is an absolute necessity, but sometimes resting is, for me, more an attitude of mind and heart than mere cessation of activity.

I need to be still – to quiet the racing thoughts by breathing deeply as I focus on a word or phrase, to remind myself that there are bigger issues than my puny preoccupations, and to recall that my God is the I AM of whatever it is that I need.

“Be still (cease striving, relax, let be) and know that I AM.” -Psalm 46:10

“Take a long, loving look at me, your High God.” -Psalm 46:10b (The Message paraphrase)

May you find deep rest in this holiday season, making time for long looks at whatever brings you to stillness.

Expectant

A friend shared this poem with me; I'd like to pass it along. As we enter into Advent, and as I pray for my first grandchild growing in womb, these words are especially poignant.

New life and light from silence and darkness:
such mystery, such hope.

Advent Longing

In the darkness of the season, in the silence of Mary's womb,
new life waits and grows.
Hope is shaped in hidden places,
on the edges, in the depths
far from the blinding lights and deafening sounds of consumer frenzy.

In the darkness and silence of my own life,
I wait,
listening for the whisper of angel wings,
longing for a genuine experience of mystery,
hoping for a rekindling of joy and the establishment of peace.

I lean into the darkness and silence.
Expectant.

-- Larry J. Peacock