This is a post that I have been forming, writing and rewriting. This post has even taken me a day to post after I wrote it. So here it goes and I pray that anyone who reads this will be encouraged and praise our Faithful Heavenly Father for it. So here it goes.
This is the time of year where the pain we have experienced over the last year or the pain we are experiencing right now feels the worst. The is the time of the year our emotions are the rawest and most exposed. We feel every painful moment in excruciating detail. Life's little bumps seem to be a pain that we feel we can not bare. The hurts we have feel as though they will kill us. The pain is real and this time of year compounds it more than any other time of year. The loss of employment, the cancer, the lost love, the death, the lack of financial stability, and the list could go on because life is painful.
These hurts and pains are real but during this time of year, in what should be celebrations, joy, love, and happiness, they seem to be over shadowed by the pain of our lives. And it hurts, our emotions seem to be at the end of the rope. We can barely stand, is seems life is crashing down. We feel completely empty and undone to the point where nothing is left.
We fight for joy in these hurts, we struggle for love, we contend for peace, and we battle for generosity but it all seems in vain. Life seems this time of year to punch us in the gut then smack us in the face and finally kick us in the butt and we seem to never find a break. This time of year life seems to be in a vacuum and a cycle of pain that we cannot escape. And I will be the first to say everything I just wrote about is real, it is true, just ask anyone who is feeling any type of pain that truly this time of the year is the worst. I will say that with these pains sometimes the feeling of hopelessness arises in the heart during the worst moments. But are we truly hopeless?
Everything could be taken away, we could have nothing left in this world, no family, no money, no possessions, no job, no health, straight nothing, BUT WE STILL HAVE HOPE.
As long as we can fall down onto our knees we have hope. During this time of year when the pain is hurting the worst we tend to forgot this. But hope is what the advent season is about. Hope in life. Hope in a fragile baby. Hope in a cold dark stinky manger. Hope is Jesus. That is the reason for advent. Hope because Jesus came as that baby, God came down as a new bloody screaming baby so He could give us the only hope we need. He came down to conquer sin, death, pain, hurts, loss and give hope in HIM that He understands, feels, desires, and will take away all that we have right now.
And in response to giving us the only hope we need He asks for only 1 simple yet challenging thing in return. WORSHIP. That is it. Worship, give it to HIM. Worship in what we say, do, think, and live. Worship in song, speech, hands, hearts, desires, lives. That is simple yet hard to do especially when the hurts are the worst, deepest, toughest, and closest. Worship Him, give Him a state of being of worship. Worship Him as the baby. Worship Him as the Shepherd. Worship Him as the Provider and the only one who sustains us. Worship Him as the Savior and Redeemer. Worship Him as the Eternal God who is all that we need.
Jesus is not asking though for the perfect, holy, healed, and healthy person to only worship Him. He will take our broken worship. Jesus knows that life hurts and there are times that it seems like we have too much pain, but even in these broken times we can still worship. I have come to realize that in these times worship is the only answer that will make the hurts somewhat take a back seat. The broken hallelujah is the fix for the pain. So during this time of year even a broken praise in the midst of the pain is what we need. The broken act of worship for the baby born in the manger will heal the hurt. So during this season of advent we need to remember that as we fight for joy, struggle for love, contend for peace, and battle for generosity; among the pains and hurts a broken act of worship will go a long way not only to the baby born 2,000 years ago but it will go a long way to heal the pain and overshadow the hurts in our hearts.
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