"Advent Series: WHWWW? When?"

We’re launching into the Christmas season with wild abandon here at First Covenant Church!

Thank you to everyone who stayed afterwards on the 26th to help us decorate the building -- it looks beautiful!  And yes, I’m aware that there are some FCCers who will want to keep the decorations up until Easter, but we all just need to be willing to enjoy them while they last.

Also thank you to all of you who brought in such an amazing assortment of cookies for our annual Christmas Cookie Exchange.  There were my personal favorite chocolate snowballs, but then there were dozens of other colorful, tasty treats that are calling to me temptingly from the kitchen.  I look forward to trying them all.

In this week’s service, Dave and Ruth Kampa lit our first Advent candle, and focused on the joy that God has given us.  Hearing Dave speak about Ruth’s physical issues this year -- and tearfully remember having to carry her into bed because she was so frail -- while watching Ruth walk up to the pulpit and stand without a walker... well, that all puts the concept of joy into the right perspective.  It’s not about enjoying the fun points in life, so much as about appreciating God’s faithfulness at every point in life.

For instance, Steve Wenzel was injured in the leg by a 1,200 lb. beam at work this week, but he’s rejoicing because it could have been so much worse.  Randy’s nephew Gerrit was severely injured when his tractor rolled over on him (and he could really use your prayers).  And we’re all going out to sing Christmas carols around the neighborhood this Wednesday evening.  I can tell you which of these moments are happier ones, but I can’t tell you which will end up involving more actual joy -- more sincere appreciation for the love and the provision of God, more warm satisfaction that God is working in the world and that you’re a part of it, more genuine peace that comes from trusting in God’s timing and wise provision.

We talked a little bit about that in our message this week, as we began our Advent series, looking at the Christmas story.  Back when I was writing articles, I remember being taught that the key to writing a good story was remembering the H & Ws -- How? Who? What? When? Where? Why?   If you skip those, then the story is diminished (and maybe even nonsensical).

Oh, we all know that the “When?” of the Christmas story was two millennia ago, back in Bethlehem, right?  And yet, that’s not really the key “when” in the story.  Over and over again in Scripture, we’re told that Jesus was born, that Jesus came to Earth, that Jesus died for our sins, that all of that happened at exactly the right time.  The most important “when” to remember when we talk about God’s timing and God’s provisioning is that He always works at exactly the right time to do what needs to happen.  Oh, all of Creation has been groaning while waiting on the Lord’s timing for the Messiah to come, but we’re told that God waited not because He was slow, but because He was patient and because His timing was based on His compassion rather than on our expectations. 

As a rule of thumb, I tend to believe that it’s always better to trust in the timing of the omniscient guy who knows what’s best, rather than to demand that He bend His wisdom to fit around my imperfect, finite, and skewed plans.  But maybe that’s just the Logic professor in me speaking.  I mean, if we believe that was true at that first Christmas, or believe that was true at that first Easter, then how can we not believe that will be true on Thursday, when life unexpectedly hits us hard? 

So let’s try an experiment together this week:  for the next seven days -- just as an experiment, mind you -- let’s you and me actively, consciously try to not stress about timing issues.  When something comes up that seems like we could really use God doing X thing by Y time, let’s just pray about it, listen to what the Lord would want us to do as part of His process, lay it at God’s feet, and then leave it there with a hearty “Amen.”  If you find yourself beginning to stress again, go through the process again (listen, lay it, leave it, amen).  And make sure to thank God for being on top of things -- not after you get what you’d expected, but while you’re in the process of praying to the God who already knows what you needed.  Just do that for a week, and then drop me a line next Monday to let me know how things turned out for you. 

Seriously.

If you find that you found joy a smidgey bit easier in the process over the next seven days, consider keeping it going for another week...