My Own John The Baptist

The thermometer clearly read 102°F. No, I don’t have time for this! I have a full “to do” list. People are counting on me for so many things today!

We’ve all been there. It might have been sickness that interrupted your plans. Perhaps the car wouldn’t start, causing you to miss something on your agenda. Or was it a family tragedy? Too much snow? Oversleeping? That particular day it was one of my children. Hurried phone calls followed. So much frustration! And then the settling in. The slowing down. The refocusing. I don’t have time for what? To tenderly care for what is most important? To ease the discomfort of this sweet little one? Oh, how distorted my eyes have become, seeing only my plans, my world, my agenda.

I am so thankful for moments like these that are thrust upon me and cause me to make room for more, for better, for the truly important. Oh to learn this lesson and remain in that place of holding things lightly! But I am wont to find myself slipping into the rut of routine and agenda, happily checking off boxes as I accomplish what I have in mind for my day. Slowly replacing purpose with accomplishment. Drifting from real joy. But God in His great love and kindness reaches out to me, sending my own John the Baptist, great interrupter. To disrupt this flow. To call me to repentance. To invite me into so much more.

We approach another celebration of Advent. God the Almighty, Creator of the Universe, Lover of Mankind come to earth, humbled, and stuffed into human form. Dare we not make room to sit in that a while? To repent of self? To remember what is most important? To hunger for what is to come?

Awake my soul from sleep to welcome a new day! Interrupt my “to do” list to embrace greater and bigger things. Still my busied hands that they may be emptied to receive the fullness of Your gifts. Disrupt this trajectory of sameness, personal agenda, self, and absorption in this world. Prepare my soul, my heart, my mind, my emotions that I may not miss the turning of water to wine, the multiplying of bread, the healing of my lame feet to run in Your ways and to walk along dusty roads with You. Silence my lips that I may hear Your voice. Focus my eyes to see what You see – the hurting, the lonely, the lost, the beauty around me. Your presence everywhere. Be the icy cold splash that awakens me to more, more of You!

– Marybeth Sauter

The Preparation: An Advent message

#edgeadvent2016

Behold! What are you preparing for? Consider posting on Facebook about something God has asked you to prepare for. Use the hashtag “#edgeadvent2016”, tag The Edge Church, and invite a friend to our upcoming Christmas service on Sunday, December 18!