Living, Learning and Loving Simply: December 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Finishing Well

I have spent some time this morning evaluating 2010.

As I talked to my husband about the year, he encouraged me to get out my journal and write these things down...how did I provide hospitality this year? How did I grow as a homemaker? Did I find time for my hobbies? What trips did we take? Did I bear fruit? Did I obey the promptings of the Spirit?

Taking a soul-inventory is so good and refreshing. I am amazed at the faithfulness of God in my life and the grace that shows up day by day, moment by moment. Staying focused is how I would describe 2010 for me. I stayed very true to my vision for being a wife, mother, and child of God...not perfect, bumps along the way, but overall I think I have finished the year well.

And 2011?

This is my Year of Presence. My heart yearns to practice the Presence of Jesus daily...to turn quickly to Him in stress, in soul-tumult, in praise for the good, in thankfulness, in joy...in all things. I want my default-setting to be dependence/trust in Jesus...not anger or fear or dismay.

Jesus is to be my First Thought not my afterthought.

And I want to give Presence to others. My time to my husband...loving and serving him well. My undistracted attention to my children. An open, available heart to my friends...and really being there for them and with them. I want to stop my hoarding mindset when it comes to availability...and to trust Him that as I give He will keep filling and overflowing His Presence in and through me.

This will most certainly touch on the deeper, selfish places of my heart.

But what is life except He and His People?

image by mmlolek

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

When Advent Turns Messy

I would have never thought just a week ago that my children and I were on the verge of entering into a very painful flu illness. I am now on day 4 of laying on my Sealy Posturepedic surrounded by unopened Amazon and Etsy boxes, mounds of dirty tissues, bigger mounds of clean laundry, bits of trash and mail, scattered books...it's a messy place, a dirty place.

It reminds me of how Jesus came into this world. Not into a clean and sterile birthing room...not into a beautiful, luxurious bedroom...into a dirty stable with the messiness of animals and dust and straw and probably some dung too. His entering presence didn't require the perfect place...just an available space.

I looked around my home this morning and saw the chaos and brokenness. Dishes and stains and dust and toys and a dead Christmas tree...nothing is shiny, nothing is cute...all looks dull and dreary and done. I thought, "Really? This is what this home will be like come Christmas?"

Yet immediately I was comforted by the gift of His Presence...that He delights to enter these kinds of homes, these kinds of relationships, these kinds of sicknesses. Brokenness is His business. He binds the brokenhearted, sets free prisoners, heals the sick, shines light into darkness, restores the years the locusts have eaten...He just asks me to be willing...to be available to Him.

And what better way to be available to Him than when I am still right now...no frantic rushing, no more baking, no more crafting, no more cooking...nothing. All I have to give is me and all He wants to give is Him.

So we give each other ourselves....PRESENCE. All the money spent on the presents can't touch the beauty of Real Presence. May this be our Advent Reality this year.