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Advent Playlist

From the Inside Out

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. —PSALM 16:11 (NRSV)

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2023

How many clowns can fit inside of a tiny clown car? Enough to delight a circus audience as the laws of physics are challenged and dozens of them happily pour out. How much delight can fit inside cramped spaces? Take Dr. Who and his timeship Tardis, which from the outside looks like a small kiosk, but inside it houses a control room, a library, a pool, an art gallery, a zoo, and on and on! C.S. Lewis captures this idea in The Last Battle when the loyal followers of Narnia are forced up a hill and into the door of a dark and tiny stable.

“Tirian looked round again and could hardly believe his eyes. There was the blue sky overhead, and grassy country spreading as far as he could see in every direction, and his new friends all round him laughing. ‘It seems, then,’ said Tirian, smiling himself, ‘that the stable seen from within and the stable seen from without are two different places.’ ...

‘Yes,’ said Queen Lucy. ‘In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.’”

In the child, Jesus we see immensity enfolded into one tiny human frame, who is Emmanuel, God with us. And in his presence we might find the fullness of all joy.

READ THIS BLESSING FROM THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE

for this painful day (p. 112)

But our God came to be cloaked

in our fragility,

in our humanity,

to know our pain from the inside out.

REFLECT

1. Early church father Irenaeus paraphrased Psalm 16:11 when he wrote, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Iraeneus (and the Psalmist) says that our aliveness is directly related to our enjoyment of God’s goodness and presence. It’s a one-to-one connectedness that we can participate in through Jesus who shows us who God is. How do you experience this correlation—that in being your full self, you bring God glory and that in God’s presence we discover that same fullness?

2. Have you ever been in a group meeting where others are dominating the conversation and you’d really like to say something but can’t get a word in? All that we want to say, God actually wants to hear. Everything that is on our hearts. We might know this intellectually, but never have tested it out in real time, or trusted that it could actually be true. Say it all out loud to God who knows and sees and hears.

GOING DEEPER

• At my lowest ebb when the guard-rails came off of my life, my faith became something that was not just about an idea-God, but an actual God whose loving presence I felt. Listen to this clip (1.5 min)1 from my conversation with Randy Balmer to hear me try to put words to this. (Heads up, my religion-professor roots are showing in my use of the word “Pietist.” It refers to an 18th century emergence of experiential devotion. You’ll feel very smart.) What are theways that God speaks love into your world? Into your heart?

• God speaks to us in more ways we can count—through the beauty of nature, through scripture, through the life of Jesus and his followers, and in the still small voice that is God’s Holy Spirit sent to us. Spend some time doing whatever works best for you to be able to listen, ton be attentive to God speaking, whether on a walk or in a quiet place, or just going about some mundane tasks. Don’t worry if it is only silence, or only a nudge and not actual words. It can be, but most often it is just an inkling. Wait and watch and listen.

From "Bless the Advent we Actually Have" by Kate Bowler and The Everything Happens Project