Simplicity
One can have a thousand flashes of insight a day about how to love others, but if they're not put into practice, how are they helpful?
This season is about simplicity. Stripping away all that gets in the way of love. It is ironic that as we prepare for Christmas, we should be shedding, shedding, all that holds us back from love, while we are spending most of our time shopping and acquiring. I am totally guilty here. And so I'm thinking about what it means to put others first, not as recipients of gifts, but of love, service, all the things Jesus stood for. He was a simple man, humble in material requirements. It was the light within that mattered.
So this Advent I'm trying to become a pilgrim, working my way towards that stable in a desert land. I'm looking for light, the Christmas Star within each person. And today, as my family lights the first candle of the Advent wreath, we'll read:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
~John 1:1-5
One can have a thousand flashes of insight a day about how to love others, but if they're not put into practice, how are they helpful?
This season is about simplicity. Stripping away all that gets in the way of love. It is ironic that as we prepare for Christmas, we should be shedding, shedding, all that holds us back from love, while we are spending most of our time shopping and acquiring. I am totally guilty here. And so I'm thinking about what it means to put others first, not as recipients of gifts, but of love, service, all the things Jesus stood for. He was a simple man, humble in material requirements. It was the light within that mattered.
So this Advent I'm trying to become a pilgrim, working my way towards that stable in a desert land. I'm looking for light, the Christmas Star within each person. And today, as my family lights the first candle of the Advent wreath, we'll read:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
~John 1:1-5
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