Thanksgiving & Advent

This is probably my most favorite time of the year. Thanksgiving to Christmas - Advent if you will -- the time of the year that the Church worldwide (except Fundamentalists, Most Evangelicals and Charismatics, the groups I sadly most identify with) celebrates the Advent, or Coming, of our Lord Jesus -- The Word made flesh that dwelt among us.
I began this period this last Thursday with a celebration of Family and Friends. First of all, Thanksgiving morning, Lindsay and Peter called. They were at James and Kristi Jensen's place in a village north of London, England. Although separated by 4,000 miles and 6 hours of time, we had a chance to talk, catch up on life. The occaision of course is Thanksgiving.
Then Chris, Sarah, along with Paula, and Mary Barga came to the house in the late morning. Not too long after came Mom and Dad Barga, Michael and Kathy from Minneapolis. We ate this humongous meal of Turkey, Ham, Rolls, Corn, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, two kinds of Cranberry dishes, and topped it off a couple of hours after the meal with dessert: pumpkin pie, apple cobbler, and/or custard pie! We drank some wine, listened to stories and laughed a lot. Kelly called from Sterling to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving, which was timely since Linda was trying to reconcile her fear with her faith that Kelly was not a part of a train crash in Chicago...never can quite figure out some of the rationale behind our fears, but Kelly's call alleviated any misgivings Linda had and it was a nice "Happy Thanksgiving" from her to add to the festivities. Later in the evening we initiated the Barga clan into the "Great Dalmuti" game, hats and all. It was a great day of celebration, food, and fun.
Michael and Kathy stayed over thru Friday. They went shopping with Paula. Linda and I went out looking for a Christmas tree. We went to our favorite little tree farm, outside of Marshall -- the Hanson tree farm. There, we picked out a 10' tall Balsam. Brought it home, fit it in the tree stand and now it awaits Andy's light decorations and Linda's ornaments. Today, Linda is making cookie dough, we'll decorate the tree, and relax.
Tomorrow the Jensen clan will arrive and we'll do our annual cookie decoration get together. It is usually a noisy but fun get together.

All of this surrounds this season of Thanksgiving, and leads directly into this season of Advent. What is there not to love about a season of family, friends, celebrations and fun?
I sat this week and meditated upon my life in relation to Thanksgiving. Deuteronomy 8 is one of my favorite Old Testament passages and it is that because it's theme is "Remember"..."Don't forget"..."All that God has done for you..." It's true, that we are all prone to forgetfulness. I am prone to take things for granted, to assume, to expect, to demand, and to gripe and complain when things don't go the way I want them to. What is needed is daily doses of "thanksgiving". The simple need to say "Lord, thanks for all that I have received...for my wife and the 35 years we've been together, for my kids who are incredible and continue to humble me and make me grateful...for my friends and the joy they bring into life...for the simple, assumed things...our house, food, heat, health, job, life...life abundant and full of joy!"
All of these things, and more fill me with Thanksgiving, and then along comes Advent!!! "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"...what a fantastic season this is.

Transitions and Patience

I'm sitting in a room of young adults...twenty-somethings is the word I believe that is often applied to them...that's rather obscure and impersonal if I do say so myself. We are gathered for a time of reflection, meditation on scripture, and prayer. This half hour time in the mornings vary between nice soul preparation time for the day ahead to can we get this over with as quickly as possible. Today is a good time of reflection. It actually started on my morning jog with Tully. It snowed last night...the first snow of the year, even if it was only a dusting that left a few blotches of white dust on the back hill and in the field across the street to see...it still was the first snow.
Tully was enjoying the run. He scampered back and forth in front of me, behind me, from side to side. His joy was only interrupted by the excitement of chasing up a rabbit that moments before we arrived had probably been enjoying the comfort and warmth of its nest. Not after Tully and I showed up. He lurched rather suddenly from what moments before seemed to be just grass and ran across the lawn to escape the giant and his large hunting animal. Tully was taken quite aback..."what in the world was that" was suddenly, instinctively something he wanted in his mouth and he pulled the leash as far as he could go before realizing that I wasn't going to chase after that "thing", whatever it was. He kept running looking back at me wondering why I didn't want to go after it. I smiled and we kept running on.
For some reason, I began to think about that and how my tendency to run after things in life that aren't really worth it. I wondered if God had me on some sort of leash! Nah...it's freedom that marks us as his creation, not being an animal to control. Tully just doesn't know it is worthless to chase the rabbit, and to use the old expression...."You wouldn't know what to do with it if you caught it anyway." The problem with me is that I think I know what to do with everything I chase after.
While jogging, my mind goes in all sorts of direction. I pray some, but I also think. I began to think about transitions and patience. We use that word transition for all sorts of things. We use it of a woman in labor who goes into transition...which means a lot of pain...intense pain because the baby is coming down the birth canal and is about to be born. We use transition to talk about times in our lives when one season ends and another begins. For me transitions in life are sometimes painful, and need the tethering...the leashing of God. "A man's wisdom gives him patience..." (Proverbs 19:11). I've been in a two year period of transition. The hard part about transiton is that it does involve a certain amount of pain...birth always involves pain. It's mainly good...sometimes I wonder if I'm running after things that are worthless...hoping that I really am on God's leash...and praying for wisdom and patience.

A Quiet Soul

It's dark now...this Saturday afternoon in mid-Autumn means the Sun has set early and while the evening news is just beginning, the outside is dark. There's something very quieting about Autumn. The days are short, the evenings long, and our world slows down a bit...at least in the Northern Hemisphere!
I love this season of cooling air, warm heat, short days and long nights. I find my soul begins to catch up as my body slows down. I need that. I am much too prone to think that my real self is in my performances, in my public busyness and the accolades of people. My soul is a jumbled mess of Me...my will, my desires, my passions, my heart, and more. I hit the Fall running so fast that I don't even take time to quiet my soul...then comes Daylight Savings time...Maybe we should call it Soul Savings Time! I don't know why it changes me, but I know what happens to me -- I slow down, and my soul is quieter, my frustrations more subdued, my expectations more realistic, and my desire for quiet strong.
I started playing Christmas music the other day. I just wanted to start preparing for Christmas in my soul first. I'm not thinking about shopping, but I am celebrating the coming of my Lord. And I read, reflect, think...just think! It's a wonderful time for a quiet soul.

Praying for Eyes to See

I remember playing little league baseball. I started playing baseball when I was about 8 and kept playing until I was about 16. I was not a very good hitter, but I was a pretty good catcher so I ended up playing baseball for several years, even though I couldn't get the hang on hitting. I stopped playing in high school largely because I wanted to play golf, which I was much better at. I went on to college, then to Grad school and eventually got back to Wisconsin in my mid 20's, which led me back to playing recreational baseball. Here's the thing...all of a sudden I could hit. All the way through my little league, junior high and high school years I never could get the hang of hitting; but now all of a sudden I was hitting the ball and hitting it well. I played baseball through my 30's, getting the joy of playing softball with my sons until my late 40's. I decided to hang it up after realizing I still could hit, but kept wondering if falling over dead on the base paths from a heart attack in my old age was going to be a good way to go!
Anyway, what I realized -- sometime in my 20's when I started to play again -- was that in all of my early years my problem was that I always batted with my eyes closed! I realized that the difference was in my older years I kept my eyes open, and it made all of the difference in the world. I could see the ball, so I could hit it. Pretty simple, huh? I got to thinking about this. I kept my eyes closed, because as a catcher I knew the way the ball came to the plate, and I was fine as a catcher with all of my padding and the face mask, etc..., but when all of that was removed, I was pretty vulnerable and I was afraid. Fear led me to bat with my eyes closed. Not very smart, but understandable when you think of a child's desire to avoid pain. I began to wonder...in all of those years why didn't one of my coaches ever observe what I was doing and try to instruct me in the simple art of keeping your eyes open. I don't know...they simply didn't. Perhaps they were focused in -- as often leaders can be -- on performance. "C'mon hit the ball, you can do it...that's ok, next time..." It's encouragement without instruction. It has made me realize that fear needs to be addressed...we need to walk into our worlds with our eyes wide open.
Here's something to meditate on: 2 Kings 6:20 is one of those "wow" passages on opening our eyes. As well, so is Isaiah 42:5-7...
Oh God, I want open eyes!

Slugging it out One Day At a Time

I remember reading Eugene Peterson's book several years ago entitled, A Long Obedience In The Same Direction. Translated this book is about faith living slugging it out one day at a time. I'm old enough to say that I believe in both the thesis of the book, and my translation of it. I wished it was true that our life of faith, the journey of faith, was smooth and always ascending. I wish there were no dark times...no dark nights of the soul. I don't like difficulties, and I don't like having to make choices that bring denial to my flesh. In otherwords, I wish we could always eat steak, mashed potatoes, fried foods with pies and other desserts to end it all with.

Life isn't always easy to navigate. Some of the things I have discovered is that it's a long journey...one for me that is now 56+ years and counting. There have been many times I failed...much more failures than successes! Which is why I'm more grateful for the words "Grace and Mercy" today than I've ever been before.
It was 34 years ago while a new believer struggling with walking it all out in faith, that my professor said the immortal words I've never forgotten: Any dead fish can float downstream. Not too eloquent, but profound. It is this never give in, never give up, never stop picking yourself up off the floor after failing again and again that counts. It's a marathon of faith we're running...the secret seems to be to just keep running!

All Souls Day

Today is another of those "lesser well known" days in the Church's calendar. While All Saints Day barely is know, I doubt if most people even know about "All Souls Day". It's obvious that it follows All Saints but the emphasis is not so much on the Saints -- or remarkable people faith -- that the Church recognizes, but rather on the Souls, the people of God's creation...i.e., US. (I said US, not U.S.).
The soul is one of those remarkable things, and I dare say many people probably have a vague but very unrefined idea of what the soul is. But, it is important. I'm not going to claim that I know everything about the soul...but just reflecting upon the soul as the very center of our being...who we really are, and where the conjunction of our physical self and spiritual self come together might be the best way to describe the soul. Reflecting upon the soul biblically leads me to some interesting observations:

• 1. To Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, as well as your mind, includes the need to love him with your soul as well - Deut. 6:5 and 10:12
• 2. The picture accompaning this is a portrayal of Hannah, who in 1 Samuel 1 wept bitterly in her soul before the Lord for a child - 1 Sam. 1:10
• 3. The Psalms are full of references to the soul and include nice positive things like, "Praise the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me.", to the not so positive gut wrenching cry of "Why are you so downcast O my soul...?" -- There are 48 references to the soul in the Psalms alone.
• 4. The Prophet Isaiah speaks what many have felt when he says, "My soul yearns for you in the night..." -- Isaiah 26:9 (I usually yearn for God to help me sleep).
• 5. Jesus' words about the soul are often penetrating... "What shall it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose their soul?" and, "Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of the one who can destroy the body and the soul..." HMMM!

I could go on. It stretches my mind to think about my soul. I know that I need to take care of it. I once heard a story of an Indian guide who told his Westward bound American scouts that he needed to stop so that his soul could catch up to his body -- I understand that.
We need to care for our souls.
So, perhaps "All Souls Day" is simply a reminder that we need to take care of our souls...not to get too preoccupied with our desire to prove our worth by all of our "human doings" and instead celebrate God's life in us as "human beings". What do you think?
I leave you with he blessing of the little known book 3 John 2: "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health, and that all may go well with you, even as your SOUL is getting along well." :)