©2021, Mel Kennedy, D.Min. Reproduction of this writing in parts or entirety without written permission is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.
I’ve been asked this question a lot lately. But being ready is about more than the decorations, grocery shopping and wrapping presents. Is your heart ready?
Joy, Rejoice! We hear those words a lot in the weeks before Christmas. The songs are filled with the words Hope, Faith, Love and Peace. How do we honor these words and take them into our hearts so that we are truly prepared to celebrate the feast of Christmas?
I think we have to embrace and embody the time leading up to Christmas. In many faith traditions, this is the season of Advent. If we haven’t engaged in preparation, we cannot truly honor Christmas in our hearts and try to keep it all the year.
It is also a time to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus and to prepare our hearts to no longer hesitate…not hesitate to witness the Good news being done right in our midst. It calls us to help alleviate the darkness in the world and be a light to all people. Okay, that all sounds great…but how?
- Hope
Hope is, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, a virtue not principally of the mind that believes in God’s faithfulness, but of the will that longs for heaven with a desire that propels it forward to ever greater spiritual growth.
Is your heart filled with hope? Do you have a confident expectation of your tomorrow? What happens when the road ahead is filled with loss and stress weighs your shoulders down? Now, more than ever, is a time to hear the whispers of and rekindle the power of hope. Hope in Jesus comes from more than just a belief that He was once a baby in a manger. This hope in Him has been called “an anchor for the soul.” It is something deep within that secures you through the storms of life.
Hope is a spiritual muscle. As people of faith, we called to exercise our hope muscles. Because like all muscles, it must be exercised just to survive. Use it or lose it.
- Faith
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” -Hebrews 11:1
It can be easy to let our faith go into auto drive, not really paying attention to it. St. Paul wrote to Timothy that we can lose this precious gift of faith. We must nurture it.
Spending quality time in prayer with the readings our faith tradition uses this time of year, our hearts are more open to receiving the word. Then it can transform our hearts and our minds. It gives us the opportunity to strengthen our union with our Creator.
- Love
I think we are all familiar with the Corinthians passage about love. Love is patient, love is kind, etc. In the KJV (and others as well), this passage actually reads:
“Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity brags not itself, is not puffed up.”
Charity means participating in tangible acts of loving-kindness toward all others (friend or enemy) in unconditional and self-sacrificial ways.
- Peace
“I give you peace, the kind of peace only I can give. It isn’t like the peace this world can give.
So don’t be worried or afraid.” -John 14:27
What is peace? There are different types of peace. We could say: Peace with God, peace with ourselves, and peace with others. Our peace with God is a gift. Our peace with ourselves is a discipleship, and peace with others is a work. I think part of the issues we experience in the world today about the lack of peace is because we need to accept the gift of the peace of God and make effort to have peace with ourselves.
As believers, we look back, but we also look forward. As God’s people, we look back and remember that Christ has come and redeemed the world. We look forward and hope for that day when He will come again, making all things new. More is yet to come! Are you ready?
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