Grown Up Christmas List

This post was inspired by Amy Grant's single, Grown Up Christmas List (Amy Grant was apparently not the first to release this as a single, however she was the first to really make it popular).

Here's My Grown Up Christmas List:

I wish for ... 

• Continued strength in my relationship with Bruce.
• Relief for those who are seriously struggling because of this economic crisis, and for those who have struggled unnoticed for so long - both in the U.S. and abroad.
• New ways of conflict transformation - I know that conflicts that have us and countries all over the world in conflict dig deep at things I don't understand, but I pray that that all those in conflict find knew ways to transform hate and embrace differences.
• Grace and mercy as I finish up this semester and look to the second half of my time at Candler.
• The living Gospel to show its face in the Advent wreath through hope, peace, joy and love.

Advent

Advent, FINALLY!!!!!  Ohhhh, there's hope!!  There's still waiting, but there's hope!!!!!

Contrary to how I'm making myself sound right now, Advent isn't my favorite Christian season.  I actually love Lent, but I think I need Advent when it comes around a lot more (I'm the same way with weather seasons as well ... my favorite season is fall, but I think I always need spring more when it finally comes around).  For me, Advent comes at a time when I've been through a long semester with no break (until Thanksgiving, some "break"), am at the end of my rope and barely hanging on.  O Come O Come Emmanuel can not be sung around me enough right now.

I've done a lot of faith searching lately.  For some reason, people have been asking me, in one way or another, either what Candler has done for me (to me) and/or what have been major turning points for me in my faith.  I think it's amazing just what has happened to me this semester alone.  I feel as if I've grown so much both in my faith and also in my spirituality.  It's been amazing, actually.  I'm not sure if I'm coming any closer to finite answers about what I believe in - to be quite honest, I don't think I'll ever come up with those kind of answers.  I have, however, been able to tap into the divine, or something greater than me, in new, different and exciting ways.

And now it's Advent.  A time of waiting and expecting and hoping and praying.  And I think it's going to be a special season, because I've always approached it from a sociological and productive angle, never from a spiritual angle.  And that's really where I'm going to start this season.  I'm going to take care of myself and wait for the Messiah.

1-800-MOTIVATION?

My motivation is gone. I can't find it anywhere. I'm thinking it's probably in the same place that my original Target Visa is. Only - when I lost my Target Visa I had a very simple solution - dial a 1-800 number, cancel the old one and order a new one. There's no 1-800 number to order a new batch of motivation.

Maybe that's the problem with society. We don't have to live with many consequences any more. When you lose a credit card, they not only issue you a new one but they also make sure you are not responsible for any charges that may have occurred when someone picked up your lost card and used it. But that's not the way the real world really works. In the real world, you have to live with consequences.

This past weekend in Sunday School, Bruce and I talked about Labyrinths with the High School class. We're really trying to look at meditation and different ways of tapping into spirituality and learning about Labyrinths seemed like the obvious next step. I wonder if walking a Labyrinth would be a good way to address some of what is lost in my life - like my motivation. I wonder if I took the time to actually walk a Labyrinth - not rush through it and have my brain be elsewhere, but really walk through it (or follow it in the case of a Finger Labyrinth) - I might find my motivation again. I think part of the problem is that I'm always looking to the next thing and don't have time to address the here and the now. This is why I called the Visa Card people - I didn't have time to deal with a lost credit card and I needed a replacement. But life isn't that simple. Sometimes - most of the time in fact - you have to deal with the hear and the now and I think that walking a Labyrinth is a good way to condition you to do that.

So I'll try if you try. I don't have a labyrinth, but I found some good drawings online. Perhaps once a day I can take the time to actually work through it and see if I can't find some of that lost motivation.

Grace, Peace & Uncovering the Lost,

Sarah