"Haver" British usage: "to hem and haw." Scottish: "to maunder, to talk foolishly, to chatter, talk nonsense, to babble." Jewish: "a friend, chum, mate" - specifically someone willing to partner with you in grappling with truth and Word and life. Yep, I'm setting a high bar here...

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Advent mantra

This one grabbed me this morning -- just had to post it here. Nice wee Advent nugget courtesy of Richard Rohr:


“Come, Lord Jesus,” the Advent mantra, means that all of Christian history has to live out of a kind of deliberate emptiness, a kind of chosen non-fulfillment. Perfect fullness is always to come, and we do not need to demand it now. This keeps the field of life wide open and especially open to grace and to a future created by God rather than us. This is what it means to be “awake,” as the gospel urges us...

Wow. What a contrast to the "perfect fullness" we not only demand on Christmas morning, but most Sunday mornings -- in fact most mornings. What a delicious twist! Living out of deliberate emptiness, a chosen non-fulfillment leading to a field of life wide open with possibilities. Wow. To give up trying to construct my own future or our future collectively as a community, nation and world, and daily, with arms wide open to embrace the future created by God.

I think I have my mantra for this season.

I think I want to stay awake.

Come Lord Jesus!

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