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Tag: advent

The Discipline of Hope, {Advent 2, 2016}

wws-cynicsCynicism. In many ways it seems like the most logical, natural way to wrap up a year like 2016. There have been so many unexpected deaths: Natalie Cole, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Gwen Ifil, Florence Henderson, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder. (Whew. And those are just a few.). All of these have been layered over a world hell bent on violence, and a campaign so full of insult and vitriol that even some of the campaignsā€™ mangers were at each otherā€™s throats after the election. So it was a surprise, but a very small one, when many of my friends who had been supportive of the protests in the Dakotas, responded cynically to the news that the Army Corp of Engineers decided to stop the pipeline construction, at least for now. This was supposed to feel like good news. Within hours of the news going public my social media feeds were flooded with cynical claims that the announcement was a ploy just to get protestors off the land, that it wouldnā€™t be honored by the powers behind the pipeline, or that it was just a stalling tactic and a PR move.

This cynical turn would be negligible had it not been such a sudden, broadly expressed, and widely accepted sentiment. Even if these fears prove to be true, the speed that they were communicated and embraced said more about the habits of our hearts than our insight into the world. We have been steeping in a rhetoric of deep conflict and distrust for months and years on end. We have become so accustomed to enmity that assuming the worst no longer feels like pessimism, it feels like a practical defense mechanism, a way of tempering or restraining our hopes. It seems as if lowering our expectations actually seems like a useful, if not necessary practice to prepare us for when the other shoe inevitably falls.

I understand its appeal. Presuming the darkness is an endeavor that is rarely disappointed. But I am a Christian, and this is Advent, and it strikes me that cynicism, in its many forms, runs cross grain to the hope I am to be cultivating, especially during this time. Therefore it has no place in my life. So, Now what? What do we do when the most logical, natural conclusion, is incompatible with Christian practice and convictions? What do we do when it runs cross grain to our faith?

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Its Jesus, Not Dinosaurs…that are coming. Advent Day One

Ah. I begin Advent again with boxes and branches strewn about my small living room. Ā  I just put in the last of what I call the Deadly Poultry Dishes in the dish washer and hope that I have done so prudently enough to keep the infinite number of possible turkey based bacterial death contaminates at bayā€¦ I guess we will see soon enough. I worked too many hours selling self described ā€œmagicā€ gadgets to strangers over the past two days and I feel harried and hurried and anxious and I feel certain if I sit down to finish writing this I will once again be late for Church. Ā  It appears that I am exactly where I should be to begin advent.

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29 Days of Hope: Day 9, The Gift of the Mad Guy.

ā€œAllanā€ greeted me at the door with an enthusiasm that frankly would haveĀ scared me if it hadnā€™t made me so happy to be alive. Ā He was in his late fifties 6’3″ thin like a coat rack with a smile that made his eyes disappear. Ā  This time of year I can only think to call him jolly. Ā Allan has a unique way of lighting up a place. Ā  Ā It was hard for me to believe that he was anything other than a ray of light, but he once was something else, which only makes his story that much more beautiful…

29 Days of Hope