AdventWord::Abide

Abide
God’s invitation for us to abide in God as God abides in us is not an invitation to settle down and get comfortable. It is a call to mission, a summons to fruitfulness. We are meant to share the fruits of the divine life with others.

-Br. David Vryhof

The last leaf on the tree is abiding. Holding fast, for now, to the branch. It has been created and nourished. It has flourished with the once-red, heart-shaped leaves of the Red Bud tree. And while I can add some nutrients to the soil, and water the tree, the truth is, life will happen in the coming dormancy. Designed by the Designer. Just like me. I sincerely want to be in this awareness. I abide. I can do what is necessary, the food, water, work, exercise, spiritual practice, love, friendship, all of it. But it's God the Designer of all, who is creating life within my being. Providing what will be found in my next steps. Or in my rest.
Abiding in Him.
Thoughtfully.

AdventWord::Prune

Prune
We prune to let go of growth, letting die what is alive but not growing in the best direction. We prune to let go of death, letting go what is dead but still taking up space. Pruning is a form of dying in order for the tree to more fully live and bear more fruit.

-Br. Luke Ditewig

I'm a big believer in pruning. God has taught me so very much about my life while at the tasks of the garden. I see the hard cut back of January as the first step toward the blooms of spring. 

The first time I cut roses back I did it by the book. I did the pruning. Gingerly. And then my beautiful rose-tender-of-a-neighbor, Bob, came over and told me to go harder. Angling my pruning sheers properly and removing all but about 14" of the plant, I cut, believing in his urging, kinda. A few months later, the roses were gorgeous and profuse.

Pruning then, applies well in my life. Cut back, even what's alive but not growing in the best direction. All of it becomes fodder for the sheers. Unnecessary complexities, clusters of "do," the things I take on, the stuff I collect, that thing that is dead and taking up space. Not as simple and pure as the garden work, certainly. 

Christ speaks these words in John 15:  “1 I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you." 

Reflecting and consuming these concepts, I have to place it all on the Gardener's altar. Allow His wisdom and love to show me where to make the cut and which angle to use so that new growth is not halted, but prepared in the right season. The waiting is not without anxiousness, but filled with joyful expectation.

AdventWord::Open

Open

When we open our hearts enough to truly love, our enemies can open up the possibility for our healing. It’s not just about treating our enemies a certain way; it’s about the fruits of relating to each other, to everyone, in the fullness of Christ’s love. When we practice loving fully, our great reward is being free from holding onto feelings like anger and hatred.

-Br. Nicholas Bartoli

And when we open, we can be beautiful. We afford others the opportunity to grow and blossom too.

AdventWord::Awaken

Awaken
Jesus calls us to live into the fullness of our humanity, to embrace what we, in our brokenness, experience as physical, psychic, or spiritual limitations. Jesus urges that, rather than seeking to be cured of our limitations, we ask God to heal us in them, and waken us to the spiritual gifts hidden in them.

-Br. Jonathan Maury

Not unlike the unfolding of the Narcissus. These were tucked in a bag, purchased in November and forgotten with a couple of ornaments. They tried to sprout, to grow. But they needed the light. They needed the water. 

AdventWord::Surprise

Surprise

The egg took me by surprise. I was puttering in my garden, picking strawberries when I noticed it. The blue color striking. The brown dots in line with what I think a Robin might produce. But I'd never expect to see it. I've never seen one in my yard. The Bluejay grasps my attention. This was a moment of God's providence for me. God knows me and that I'm very often surprised by what becomes joy. Things that come from small things, like color, or a word, things noticed, kindnesses, love, eggs.

This thing, sticking with the One who turns the world upside down is a lovely thing. Sticking with Him, takes me to places where I'm startled and confused and surprised. I want to find Jesus as I come along with him, as he has come to me with love. I want to look and listen and find him in the unexpected way.

Here, I live in delight.


God comes to us as a vulnerable human baby to an unlikely couple in an obscure place. And in doing so turns the world upside down. Jesus says: Stick with me even if I am different, confusing, or surprising. I have come, and I am coming to you today with love! Look for me. Listen. I am coming in an unexpected way.

-Br. Luke Ditewig

AdventWord::Glow

That glow, the one of littles expectant with story, the fiance at the asking, the first notice joy, is from an inner fullness in what we have. A deep kind of gratitude. A deep beauty. Contagious. It spreads the light to us, the witnesses. Knowing who we are and to whom we belong, we can glow in the exchange of that knowing love. May you glow.


Glow
As children of the light we have the opportunity to either squander God’s riches or to capitalize on them by being ministers of God’s light, life, and love for all people.

-Br. Jim Woodrum

AdventWord::Promise

Promise
God gives us the responsibility of doing something ourselves about those faithless fears and worldly anxieties that are holding us back. We don’t have to do this alone. We have God’s promise of holding our hand and of helping us.

-Br. David Allen

Parenting? Dog husbandry? Air travel? All hold the promise of the unknown. The adventure. The anxiety. But just knowing the Ruler of the Universe, the High King has my back makes me giddy right there with the anxiousness. So, let's also grab the hand of the one next to us and remind with gentle love: we don't have to do this alone.

Photo credit to my Dear Husband who is off on an adventure himself.

AdventWord::Light

We will be a more luminous epiphany of the love of Christ not only when we love, but when we recognize Christ present in the loving hearts of others, whatever their beliefs or understanding of God.

– Br. Mark Brown

Light your lantern but do not look for love. Trespass into the dark. Bring light where darkness reigns. You're the answer you're looking for.
- John Patrick Shanley

So, from the words of my childhood worship, the language of my heart: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matt 5:16 KJV

I love the thought then forming in my head from five or six as our Episcopalian pastor spoke those words. My light, coming from the very Light of the World, can shine. With joy and grace and peace, the light from within me isn't my creation, but a further expression of Christ in me. His response, his responsibility. My job is to allow the glow and not to extinguish it. Oh how simple it could be.

AdventWord::Listen

Listen.
In the deep, still quiet of the morning. I am listening.

And in the midst, a text of encouragement from my friend: "confess and let the pure water of grace flow over your mistakes."

Oh yes, I am listening.

AdventWord::Renew

Renew::Christ is all in all. He is here symbolically in a stone altar He is here sacramentally in bread and wine. He is here spiritually in hearts lifted up and returned to us renewed, transformed, consecrated. – Br. Mark Brown

I marvel at my friend Nancy Santullo. She's there on the left in the Rain Forest, where she's giving a significant portion of her live to serve, to renew, to love the people there and to help bring fresh water to their lives. There's so much more. Her short biography states brilliantly: "The essence of her activism is not only a functioning clean water source, or creating better hygiene and health — it is the building of a community that values, maintains and benefits together from its existence in their village."

Nancy has made her life to be about renewal. Through her presence, her love and her diligence. Hands and feet, you know?

You can read more about Nancy Santullo and Rain Forest Flow here. And, it is giving Tuesday!

AdventWord::Love

On the big board across from my desk.

It's the best reminder of the Savior's words in John:

John 13:34-35 The Message
34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”