The What If people

We are into Advent, that time of the year when some people have an advent calendar which is really useful for ticking off the number of days until Christmas Day. It’s a shame that this thinking predominates because this season of the Christian calendar is much more important than that.

Advent means the arrival of someone or something and is a time of preparation that encourages Christians to reflect on the coming of Christ past, present and future. From my perspective I am always disappointed that the focus – depending on your particular religious leaning is on the past or the present. The Infant Jesus in the manger or the last days when Christ will come and wrap everything up. The past is good and a great celebration, while the future is probably all a bit too hard; but what about today?

I read a story recently about a young Christian woman who, when people complained about the lack of leaders today, would say to anyone who wanted to listen – ‘We are the one’s we’ve been waiting for!’ Her name was Lisa Sullivan and she died at the age of 40; but her words and challenge live on. What if we were to stop whingeing, whining and waiting and just got on with it? What if we were to take the words of Christ as REAL truth and not just some nice Christian clichés and actually chose to walk in their power and hope? What if?

I think that for too long we have held on to the idea of Christ without really experiencing his work in our lives by His Spirit. Someone kindly shared with me that my message on Sunday was helpful to them because of my belief that God is a part of everything that I do - yes everything - and therefore I don’t see God at work occasionally; but always. So I see God in the very mundane day to day stuff which actually allows me from time to see God in more exciting and even ‘miraculous’ stuff.

I have this theory that people have lost interest in the Christian message and the church, because we don’t live as if we believe it. In the more traditional churches we might focus on a certain understanding of how church happens because this grounds us in the great history of the past and the sense of still being a part of the ongoing story without ever feeling its power. In the more ‘spirit filled’ churches we find a focus on the miracles and the work of the Spirit but this can often lead to frustration and disappointment when nothing happens. I have a blind friend who attended a congregation that prayed for his healing for a length of time and then he left because he felt that his lack of healing was causing some discontent. Interestingly, while he would like to see, he is one of the most victorious Christian men I have ever known!

I figure that if you give God all of the glory and pain of the mundane stuff we will from time to time see God’s divine will in some bigger stuff as well. We might actually get a sniff of a miracle or two? Without this mind set we allow mediocrity to set in and don’t see God at work at all. We look for the big banger miracles and miss the little stuff before our eyes. Do some dreaming and a whole bunch of people would love to join you!

During Advent I am going to be dreaming some dreams. Unless you are into divine dreaming you might get a little bored; but I challenge you to bring your dreaming head along next Sunday and the rest of the Sundays leading up to Christmas Day. Last week we looked at being strong and living out our lives appropriately. This week I want us to be looking at hope. What might be if we own the truth that ‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for’! You never know, we might just be a part of turning swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.