Advent

We visit with family, we visit with friends but when do we visit with God?  When do we take the time to listen without speaking, seeing without interpreting, being without thinking?  Much of our time we spend crossing off to do lists attempting to maintain a certain peace, a certain sanity that we neglect our invitation to the Father’s banquet.  Instead of relishing in love, in joy, in hope, we retreat into the night anxious about the morning until it comes and we become reliant upon the adrenaline of the mind rushing to keep from collapsing to the purity,the truth, the love of the heart.  Day breaks and we see time sensitive opportunities, opportunities we believe allow for growth yet are just the opposite in that they cast us into the shadows of our mind where we become lost and fearful of the Light.  The mind relishes the opportunity to control as it wishes for total domination of our being intending to cast from out thoughts the knowledge of the heart and the words of the soul.  Thus we keep busy with our to do lists, we fill our agendas with tons of event allowing no time to sit, not time to listen, not time to see, not time to feel the presence of the Father in our every day lives.  A week before Christmas and the list grows exponentially as does our anxiety as we squeeze in every shopping, every baking, every gift wrapping moment we can when what we really need to do is just stop.  Gifted with a tiny Child, faith in the flesh, advent is our gift, too, our time to remember, our time to see, our time to feel the faith with dwells within.  Four weeks to prepare, not for parties, presents and cookies, but rather four weeks to prepare our hearts, to listen in the silence of our soul that we may be recentered in the Father, redefined in the Son, and repurposed in the Spirit.  With out humanity comes wandering, comes detachment for the mind constantly struggles for domination while the heart asserts love.  To be recentered in the Father means to look deep within ourselves and see the love which and who we are, the love which the Father offers in our every waking moment.  Recentering comes with no price tag, it comes, rather, with a guarantee of peace, joy and calm.  Silence is the key to this recentering, silence of the mind, while often difficult is most rewarding for it opens our eyes to the truth of our connection with and to the Father.  Our breath slows, our anxiety dissipates, our bond becomes certain as our pulse syncs with the Father and our silence becomes the echoing of the word loved.  Our recentering leads us to become redefined in the Son as we revisit His actions, as we tap into His heart and feel His emotions connected to humanness.  He walked, He lived as w do yet He did it every day cognizant of love; every word, every action transmitted love.  He our model, He our Savior, we need to spend time with Him, redefining love, not from a human standpoint but rather from as divine connection.  Love connects the souls in so far that we need not speak yet we know love, we know the the hopes of another for the language of the heart is universal and speaks with confident humility.  To be redefined in the Son we are permitting ourselves to be flawed humans with extraordinary means of loving, of compassion, of empathy, of faith for these come from the truth of our being, our connection with the Father.  Once we redefine our beings a pure love, we can walk with the Holy Spirit to become repurposed in our faith, to make tracks where track never were seen, to forge new paths to inspire faith.  The Spirit was our gift from the Son to ensure our lives not be consumed by humanity, that we have a gateway back to our spirituality, to the reality which is the Father.  Wrestling with humanity leaves us weak, beaten, tired and unsure yet this is not the Father’s wish for our lives.  Take this gift of advent and spend time preparing that which is truly important, our relationship with the Father.  Close down the mind, put aside the to do lists, turn off the oven and just be, be with the Father, let the Son remind us of His moments, let Him show us how to love and let the Spirit pave the way.  Should we take this time to prepare, then our time with family and friends will be that much more rewarding.  We are gifted with this advent, don’t regift it with a lost opportunity of connection.