The Church Year Archives - The Messy Middle

Faith, Learning lessons, The Church Year

Welcome to Spirit Week for the Soul

Remember in November when I wrote:

This summer was a rough patch for me internally. I had one friend text me more than once, “I’m worried about you.” I was worried about me too. I identified “resentment” as my primary emotion. Not good people, not good.

Part of the cause was for the first time since I was four-years-old, I was no longer functioning on an academic schedule. Guess how long it’s been since I was four? Short answer: a very, long time.

For a life time, my sense of time has been rooted in a school calendar. My sense of rest has been rooted in breaks around winter and summer holidays. My sense of busy seasons with the ebbs and flows of semesters.

A primary reason for the oozing-into-my soul resentfulness was the clash between what my body and soul expected from summer time and what my current reality demands. The clash was like fingernails dragging down the chalkboard of my soul.

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Welcome to Spirit Week for the SoulSome of you have joined me in reading through The Circle of Seasons, about the church calendar, by Kimberlee Conway Ireton. A week ago in Church the pastor mentioned that this past Sunday was Pentecost and to wear red to church.

I have to admit growing up in a church that mentioned advent, but not too much of the other parts of the church calendar, sometimes I get a little confused over what Pentecost is. I know, embarrassing, but there you have it. In short, Pentecost is 50 days after Easter (Pente = five) with the believers gathered together and waiting. The Holy Spirit came and afterwards the believers went back home after what is considered the church’s birthday.

This reorienting of the soul is good for me because it it doesn’t happen without a bit of intentionality. If only I could wave a magic wand and just be different. Or wait in a room for the Spirit to SHOW UP and boom, be done with it.

That, however, is not how this is playing out for my soul. Instead, it’s a bit more like getting braces for my soul. This first year, these holidays and readings are a bit, in the best sense, like visiting the orthodontist and having an adjustment. It feels a bit awkward and unnatural, but I can tell something is happening.

Ordinary time will start next Sunday and will run until Advent (doesn’t advent seem a long way off? I haven’t even gotten to wear my summer clothes yet!). This week, however, the week of Pentecost.

Remember in junior high or high school when you’d have spirit week? Well this Holy Spirit Week for the Soul! Maybe that’s not the official church calendar vernacular, but it’s helping me to think of it in these terms. The color, as you have guessed since the pastor invited people to wear red, is red. On Sunday I did wear red and Kimberly Conway Ireton suggested lighting a red candle during meals this week. I like small, yet tangible ways to reorient my soul.

Several years ago I wrote Can you judge an author by his hair? about the book the Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God by Mark Batterson.

“Just as Aslan isn’t safe, but he’s good, the Holy Spirit isn’t tame, but he’s trustworthy. Borrowing from Celtic Christians who refer to An Geadh-Glas, the wild goose, Batterson shows how we tend to cage the Holy Spirit and need to be the kind of person who resists urges. Who hasn’t found false safety in one of these cages? Responsibility, routine, assumptions, guilt, failure, or fear? But we have been called to the wild by following The Wild Goose.”

When the Holy Spirit is only referred to “the Comforter” (for good reasons!), it can make the Spirit smaller, tamer, the least interesting part of the trinity.

This week, when I see red, I’m using it as a trigger to expand how I see the Holy Spirit, and therefore expand how I see God.

How is the readjusting going for you? What’s helping? What’s been hard?

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Faith, Guest Post, The Church Year

How’s the habit going?

On Tuesday Kimberlee Conway Ireton wrote a guest post here at The Messy Middle for Eastertide and she talked about the habit of joy. It touched a beautiful spot and many commented. If you haven’t, please read the post.

She ended: “Friends, we have died with Christ, and we are raised with Him. Ring the bells, blow the trumpets, bang the gongs! And for the love of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, live in joy! Here. Now. Go for a walk. Take a nap. Watch the sun rise, study a tulip. Listen to a symphony, or bird song, or silence. Read a good book. Read the Good Book. Bite your tongue. Smile. Sing. Pray. Raise your arms. Shout huzzah. Dance a jig. Sniff a lilac. Stare at the stars. I mean it. Quit reading this post and go do something that brings you joy. Then do it again and again and again till it becomes a habit, the habit of joy.”

Today, let’s not move on too quickly from the heart of Kimberlee’s encouragement to cultivate the habit of joy.

Life is hard. A dear friend started chemo this week. Another didn’t get an eagerly anticipated job. Yet joy is woven in too. A niece given several school awards. Another niece testing into a certain math class and called The Math Fairy (me) to share. A lost old, but beloved, passport was found and there was dancing. Life is not like a long road trip where the goal is to get to the destination fast with as few rest stops as possible.

Since Tuesday I have asked myself to do something joyful each day.This week, in the name of joy I:

Stood an extra minute in the shower, noticing the water hitting my body.
Danced with fresh abandon in Zumba. I can’t help it. Zumba brings me so much joy!
Smelled the air after the rain.
Wore my favorite pants . . . so far four days in a row. Will I wear them today? :)?

How about you? What have you done this week to cultivate joy? Please take a moment and share with us . . . it would bring me joy. Bet you saw that coming, wink. We really would like to hear.

Kimberlee, thanks reminding us that part of Eastertide is JOY.

Amy

Faith, Guest Post, The Church Year

The Habit of Joy

I am thrilled to hear from Kimberlee Conway Ireton today. Kimberlee is the author of The Circle of Seasons, the book we are reading through this year as we orient ourselves around the church calendar. Thank you for the gift of your presence and wisdom, Kimberlee.

It is Eastertide, the Great Fifty Days in which we celebrate Resurrection, Christ’s triumph over sin and death and evil. During Easter, we remember our own baptism, too, in which we died with Christ and were raised with Him in newness of life. This whole season is life and joy. Those of us in the northern hemisphere see that newness of life and joy reflected in the greening of the trees and the myriad colors of the flowers, as if creation itself were dancing for joy that winter is over and gone, the time for singing has come!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Ring the bells, sound the trumpets, bang the gongs, shout for joy! Death is defeated! Joy is here, is now!

And it is.

And it’s also not.

That’s why our task in Easter is to live in joy—and it is a task. It’s something we do. And in this vale of tears, it’s sometimes hard to do.

You wouldn’t think joy would be so difficult. After all, it’s what we all crave, right? We want joy. And yet…joy is hard. Think about it. Does it bring you joy when you yell at your kids or snap at your spouse? Does it bring you joy to fritter away an hour on Facebook and get sucked down a dozen different online rabbit trails that leave you wishing you had that hour of your life back? Does it bring you joy to hurl yourself onto your bed and curl up in a ball of teeth-gnashing self-pity? Does it bring you joy to listen to the voices of self-loathing or self-doubt or self-exaltation that seem to be constantly knocking about in your head?

No? Huh. Those things don’t bring me joy, either. And yet—I still do them. Now why is that?

One word: habit.

Those things get to be habits with us. And it’s easier to ride the rails of joyless (and often death-dealing) habit than to strike out into fresh paths of joy and new life.

Here’s where the good news of Easter comes in: Jesus broke all those death traps—they can no longer hold us. He has broken their power over us, and we are free to live in joy. We have His power—His amazing resurrection power—to say no to the stuff (and the sin) that steals our joy.

Now, there’s no magic bullet. We can’t just wish ourselves out of joyless, life-denying habits and into joyful, life-giving ones. “Divine grace works along the lines of human action.” That’s Charlotte Mason, one of the wisest women I know. St. Paul said it, too: “Continue to work out your salvation” (Phil. 2:12). There is work to be done, and sometimes it’s hard. Trust me on this—it’s taken me a dozen years to get in front of my hot temper and the habit of lashing out in anger when I am frustrated. And I’m not 100% successful even now. But I see such tremendous growth—God has taken my loaves and fishes, my paltry (and at the same time oh-so-difficult) efforts to shut my mouth and bite my tongue when I’d rather rant and rave, and He has blessed them, multiplied them. He is helping me to become a patient, kind person. And if you knew just how impatient and unkind I have been, well, you would believe in miracles!

But wait. You do believe in miracles. You believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. You believe in Resurrection. You believe in new life. You believe in the promise of Easter: of death defeated and life without end, joy without end.

And if that’s the case, if we as Christians really do believe in miracles, then of course we must believe that God can transform us, can reach right into the sinews of our bodies and the corners of our minds where lodge the habits that steal our joy and keep us from living free—and bring them out into the light of resurrection. He can take all those joyless habits of feeling, thought, and action, and work in us to replace them with habits of life and joy.

God wants to give us the mind of Christ, the life of Christ, but we have to put it on, take it up. And to put it on and take it up, there are things we will have to take off and put down (my temper, my scathing tongue). And depending on how hard we’re clinging to those things or how deeply they’re embedded in us, that may be a battle, it may take some time (or a lifetime), it may be two steps forward and a step and a half back. No matter.

The saints and angels are cheering us on. God is cheering us on. God, who is patient and kind and abounding in steadfast love, is eagerly watching and waiting for us to take off our joyless habits and put on the mind of Christ, to lay down our life-denying habits and take up the life of Christ, for He is eager to help us, to aid and abet and uphold us in the joy-life, the life of the risen Son.

Friends, we have died with Christ, and we are raised with Him. Ring the bells, blow the trumpets, bang the gongs! And for the love of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, live in joy! Here. Now. Go for a walk. Take a nap. Watch the sun rise, study a tulip. Listen to a symphony, or bird song, or silence. Read a good book. Read the Good Book. Bite your tongue. Smile. Sing. Pray. Raise your arms. Shout huzzah. Dance a jig. Sniff a lilac. Stare at the stars. I mean it. Quit reading this post and go do something that brings you joy. Then do it again and again and again till it becomes a habit, the habit of joy.

By Kimberlee Conway Ireton

Faith, Holiday, The Church Year

A meditation for Good Friday

At times, words are too much for me on Good Friday. All the noise. All the motion. All the focus on the candy.

Here I’ve adapted a post I wrote last week for Velvet Ashes and it uses Visio Divina. Visio Divina Latin for divine seeing or “praying with art.”

Today on Good Friday, using the simple instructions below, spend a few minutes meditating on this image depicting Peter’s denial of Christ.

Look at the image and let your eyes stay with the very first thing that you see. Keep your attention on that one part of the image that first catches your eye. Try to keep your eyes from wandering to other parts of the picture. Breathe deeply and let yourself gaze at that part of the image for a minute or so.
Now, let your eyes gaze at the whole image. Take your time and look at every part of the photograph. See it all. Reflect on the image for a minute or so.
Consider the following questions:
- What emotions does this image evoke in you?
- What does the image stir up in you, bring forth in you?
- Does this image lead you into an attitude of prayer? If so, let these prayers take form in you. Write them down if you desire.
Now, offer your prayers to God in a final time of silence.

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Here are three suggestions if you would like to continue this Spiritual Practice:

When you look at Instagram, choose an image for Visio Divinia
Pick a piece of art from your host country
Use this meditation for Rest on the Flight to Egypt

Had you heard of Visio Divina? How was trying it with the picture of Peter? What did God reveal to you through this practice?

Image by Waiting for the Christ

P.S. Winner of the Coloring Book has been notified :)

Guest Post, The Church Year

A Long Lent

I am thrilled to hear from Kimberlee Conway Ireton today. It will be our only post this week because I do not want to rush through what she has to say. Come back to it throughout the week. Next Monday we’ll have our next Help Us Understand interview. But for now, for this week, Kimberlee ministers to us and will meet us in the comments. Thank you for the gift of your presence, Kimberlee.

I love Lent. Ever since I first heard about it, decades ago now, I have loved this season. Being of a somewhat ascetic temperament, fasting is my love language. You want me to give something up? Do something hard? For God? Sign me up! As a teenager, I dreamed of being a missionary to Russia. I actually wanted to get caught and sent to Siberia. Stories of martyrs languishing in prison and dying for their faith thrilled me, and I wanted to be like them.

Then I grew up. I tasted suffering, and I did not like it. But I still liked Lent with its fasting and praying and giving things up for God.

Until this year. For the first time ever, I have actually been dreading Lent this year. You see, it’s been two years of letting go of thing after thing after thing in my life. Two years of shedding identities that have long defined me. Two years of surrendering more and more of myself to God. Two long years of Lent.

The thought of more giving up gives me pause. What else do you want, Lord? And He says, Everything. He says it gently. But He says it nonetheless.

Please do not mishear me. The past two years, despite the giving up and the letting go over and over again, have also been beautiful. I have grown so much. I can feel that my soul is larger. And I am grateful.

I am also aware that I have only begun this journey of surrender. I still have much to let go of, many miles to walk on this pilgrimage of faith and trust, and the way my heart has shrunk back in fear this Lent reminds me just how far I have to go.

But one foot in front of the other. Embrace again the traditional Lenten practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Gently. Thoughtfully. As my husband is fond of saying, “Most of life is getting your so thats right.” And that’s one of the gifts of these past two Lenten years: they have helped me get my so-thats right.

Why do I fast? For the same reason I have given up all these false selves the past two years: so that there is space for God to speak truth and love into my life.

Why do I pray? For the same reason I have let go of several idols in my life: so that I can worship God alone.

Why do I repent? So that I can face God, so that I can see Him face to face and see “the loveliness and the wonders of the world” that I so often miss because I am looking the wrong way—at my navel instead of my God and His world.

Why do I give? So that I can bless others as God has blessed me.

Lent gives these things to us—fasting, prayer, repentance, giving (and giving up)—and they are good things. Hard sometimes, but very, very good. I think of them as seeds, like in Jesus’ parable of the sower. During Lent we sow these practices in our lives, and eventually they will bear fruit, the fruit of getting our so-thats right, and even better, the fruit of drawing nearer to God in Christ.

I firmly believe that my first Lenten fast (from chocolate, I think) was such a seed, an early and necessary step on the journey that led me to these past two years and their refining. My so-thats were all wrong then, and for many years after. But God saw past my confused reasoning to my heart, and He slowly, gently drew me more deeply into a true Lent, a Lent that is less about what I do or don’t do and more about what He does and has done, a Lent that is less about doing and more about being.

I have yet to observe a true Lent. I still get horribly distracted by unimportant things. I still get caught up in the more-better-faster ethos of efficiency that is contemporary culture. I still get sucked down internet rabbit holes. But my distraction and rat-racing and rabbit-holing last less long than they used to. I come back to myself—and more importantly, to God—a lot sooner than I used to. I can’t stay in the loud and busy places for long; I crave quiet and silence and space because that’s when I hear Him, that’s when I see Him, that’s when I notice the gift that is my life.

And that is what these two years of Lent have taught me, what Lent is giving me even now: a sense that life is a gift, that each moment is ablaze with glory or awash in peace or amazing with grace. I don’t always see it. I never will. But I see more of it than I used to, and I want to see still more than I do now.

Jesus once asked a blind man, “What do you want?”

And the blind man said, “Lord, I want to see.”

Lent helps us to see. And that is why, even in this year that I was dreading it, I love this season.

By Kimberlee Conway Ireton

Faith, Learning lessons, The Church Year

Why my fourth favorite book of the Bible needs to be on your radar

In early January I was asked if I was willing to help with a project that would summarize each book of the Bible in 30 seconds and then share the good news of that book in 30 seconds.

In just over an hour a person could the entire Bible in summary and good news. Isn’t that one of the coolest ideas you have heard of for the Bible?

We were told to sign up for our favorite book (or whatever was left that interested you.). Well, at first I was disappointed to have gotten my fourth favorite book of the Bible (Philemon, Habakuk, and James were already chosen). I put Ezra and Nehemiah together, since they tell one story. When Ezra was taken, I jumped at Nehemiah.

Boy am I ever glad I did. If you want a painfully beautiful activity, summarize a book of the Bible in 80 or less words and then try not to read it like a crazy person. It pushes you in a good way.

Here is my summary of Nehemiah. When I stop talking, you can stop listening, there is nothing but silence for about 60 seconds. Why? Oh, just to mess you with.

Here is the good news of Nehemiah. Don’t you love the prayer?

This is a Lenten project, so books are being added until Easter. You can follow the series here. My friend Tanya not only wrote a book on Ruth, she gives the summary—the secret hero— and the good news—patron saint of the grumpy. She has a lovely British accent you’ll enjoy wherever you’re from. I have to be careful or I’ll start recommending everyone of them. But truly, if you only check out one more, listen to Tara Owens’ good news of 1 Samuel. I can almost promise you’ll be thinking about it all weekend.

I am excited at the potential for this project and the ways it can be used in Sunday School classes, youth groups, and personal listening.

Which have you listened do? Recommendations?

Community, The Church Year

When Worlds Collide (Simple Lenten Ideas)

Where to start?

So much is going on between The Denver Broncos Super Bowl victory, Chinese New Year (Hello Monkey Year!), Ash Wednesday and Lent, Jayhawk basketball, President’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

I will admit, that this week is pretty full. But it’s these kind of weeks that can help clarify what is a priority and what is the colorful spice of life. You’re going to have your own version of “Denver Broncos” or “Chinese New Year.” They are important! Don’t apologize. They add color to our lives and become the containers of bigger stories.

But, they can be confused with anchoring stories. Anchoring stories are the ones that will be there in good times and bad. The one that you can cling to when you’re not sure if the story is big enough to hold. The truth is, and you know this, that is when the color of life pales. Color is good! It is. I love color (you’ve seen my glasses, right?), but the colorful subplots can’t anchor us.

The church year is one way to anchor in the bigger story of God’s love story for humanity. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. In preparing for Lent, I’ve done a tiny bit of research (please dial back your exciement, the truth is I could share a lot more about the Broncos than I can about Lent). Maybe Lent is sneaking up on you and now you feel guilty and wonder if you’re going to “do” it wrong.

Interesting facts about Lent:

It is 40 days, not counting Sundays. Sundays are meant to be feast days, and different from the fasting days of Lent.
Speaking of fasting, in French, the word Lent means slow. I don’t know why this delights me so much but it does. Don’t you love the playfulness of God? Fast. Slow. I love it. For the season of Lent, I’m trying to fast from busyness and fully embrace “slow.” This post was “supposed” to be published on Monday, but in the spirit of Lent, I’m letting it slowly arrive a day late.

Ignore that whisper you might do it wrong and instead, look at what you might do. Here are a few ideas I’m going to try this year:

1. I’m going to eat pancakes the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. (See the Amy and Britta show to see why). But isn’t that lovely? Pancakes. Yes, I can do that.

2. Following an idea Kimberlee shared in her book The Circle of Seasons, I’ve purchased seven purple votive candles that I’ll arrange in the shape of a cross on a table. Advent is a season where as the days get darker, more candles are lit, showing that Christ is coming. In Lent, the days are getting brighter, but each week, I’ll light one less candle reminding myself that without Jesus, the world becomes darker and darker.

3. 30 Seconds Bible for Lent – I’m excited to be part of this project, which has some big names (Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Science Mike) and some great Bible teachers I know (Tanya Marlow, Tara Owens) – and me. The idea is that every day in Lent you hear a summary of a Bible book, and why it’s good news in just 30 seconds, working through a book or two of the Bible each day. That means by the end of Lent you will have heard the summarized message of the entire Bible in just over an hour. Check out the trailer here (starting Monday Feb 8th) and follow along the series here

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4. I’m also excited to share that Kimberlee is going to guest post here at The Messy Middle twice during Lent/Easter and is blogging through the psalms of ascent during this season. I love hearing from Kimberlee. I love those psalms.

5. Britta has a wonderful project called Meet Me In the Middle. Britta noticed—and I’m guessing this will resonate with you—that we are taken with before and after pictures. But what about the messy middle? The part of the process that might be chaotic and feel like nothing is happening? Easter is the biggest before and after pictures ever, let Lent be a season of meeting in the middle. I’ve been looking around for some before and after pictures to share. Stay tuned.

Here’s the Amy and Britta Show where we talk about Lent when we were kids, what we’re doing this year for Lent (learn why I’m eating pancakes), and more.

On Friday I’ve got a book give away for you, can’t wait!

Thanks for all the kind wishes for the Broncos victory. It was fun to cheer with other Broncos fans and not have to dial back my passion because I was watching with a massive group in Thailand :). What’s the colorful parts of your life? Of these ideas, which might you like to try? What do you do for Lent?

With blessing,

Amy

Learning lessons, Oneword, The Church Year

Are you a slave to your schedule? {One Word}

Sometimes our worlds crash into each other. Epiphany played chicken with the calendar in my head. Both vied for my time and attention. I decided to ignore the calendar in my head knowing that to really turn this heart of mine towards The Church Calendar will mean small sacrifices.

I make it sound so dramatic.

It’s not that dramatic. It is just that even if I think I can live on multiple plains at one time, it creates a too full inbox for us all. And instead of being on this journey together I risk being the annoying passenger in the back. So, while I would normally share my word for the year near the beginning of the year, I decided the only reason this year I’d share it in early January was to avoid looking out of sync with the world.

That is not a very compelling reason, is it?!

I’ve shared before my four-year journey with choosing a word and why you should choose one.

I’ve gone from Renewed Joy

To cour_ge

To trust

To practice celebration

I love each one of them. They are like children to me, ask me to pick who is my favorite, and I can’t. I smile remembering how God brought them into my life. I also smile, because like children, they have surprised me. Almost without fail I thought I knew why God would, say have a year of trust after I left a well-known life in China after two decades. I thought He was going to show me how, if I would trust like Abraham and pick up and move, a new plan for my life would come about.

And then not one blooming month into that year, my dad died and I still had no clear life plan. The month of May came and the job I thought I’d get, I didn’t. Trust was “supposed” to be a reward for being a loyal servant and instead it was a yearlong reminder that trust is just that. Trust. Not a guarantee. I can look back now and say I’m better for that year and that word. But it was not what I thought it would be.

The word for 2015 was “practice celebration” and I again thought I knew what it would be – the cherry on the top, coming out of a longish, dark season. Instead, guess what I called the summer of 2015? The summer of resentment.

Though my personal stories about my one word journeys might sound a bit scary, I don’t want to scare you away from choosing a word, or have a word choose you. Please still do it. As I look over the words that have chosen me—renewed joy, cour_ge, trust, and practice celebration—they have become the simplest way for me to recall what the last four years have been about. For the lessons God has been teaching me, and the ways I see myself continue to grow as a person.

This fall, once again, at an unexpected time, when I wasn’t looking for it, God shared my word for 2016. In September I wrote about mid-story endings and how Brene’ Brown’ says that most of us finish stories with some version of “not enough.” As I reflected how I finish stories, I found I’m more of “I’m too much.”

When I told my friend, “If I had just been less” she saw the danger I was flirting with and lovingly said, “You are not too much, you are abundant. That is the truth about you. There is so much in you, so I don’t want any less of you, so don’t start doing that please.” She is British and this was in a Voxer message, so I re-listened to it multiple times.

To be told you are abundant in a soothing British voice is like having the Holy Spirit as a life GPS. When I told my friend how powerful it was to hear that spoken over me, she said, she remembered being overcome by what she was saying and sensed it was a holy moment.

Abundant.

If you look at my other words, they all have elements for something to do, but this year, this word, it about who I am.

I’ve been struck lately by how much scarcity thinking there is in the world. And how much there may be in me. I’m on full-time support. Will there be enough money? I’m publishing a book. Will enough people buy it? Our church is going through a rough time. Will it survive? The list could go on.

While this year will have disappointments, I look at “abundant” and see that if I really, deeply believe I am abundant because I am an image-bearer of the Most High God—if I really believe it—it changes everything. No longer is scarcity my default position.

Abundance is.

A year of this and it just might change my life.

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Have you picked a word? What was it? Do you believe you are abundant?

A version of this first appeared at Self Talk the Gospel.

#DistractedByBeauty, The Church Year

Epiphany is more than an insight

The subtitle of Kimberlee Conway Ireton’s book is Meeting God in the Church Year.

Meeting.

Not finding, discovering, or hoping to bump into. Instead: meeting. In many ways it frees us up, doesn’t it? If I need to find God or an insight about God, I’ve got to be game on. Discovering put pressure that encounters with God need to have that “wow” factor. Hoping to bump into seems too dependent on timing. But meeting takes the pressure off, as I just have to show up and trust that in the showing up, God will show up too.

Today is Epiphany, the culmination of Christmas. I have to say, my soul is saying, “This is a Wednesday and it feels more like time to get back to school or get ready for Chinese New Year. It does not feel like one of the three major feasts in the Christian year.”

This is why we need to keep showing up, in our stories, in the church calendar—because what feels like a random Wednesday is anything but.

In The Circle of Seasons, Kimberlee wrote about the two themes of Epiphany. But before we get to the themes, I actually looked up what “Epiphany” means: the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.

I think I may be overly tired as I type this, why else would I feel so ecstatic at this definition? I actually want to clap. It’s a bit like having an epiphany. Okay, now we know I need more sleep. But isn’t that cool? An epiphany is not just a deep insight, it is a supernatural insight due to Jesus manifesting himself.

The two themes of Epiphany are:

1. Gift-giving: “What Epiphany calls us to is extravagant giving with great love, without counting the cost.”

I want to pause here for a moment as we will be entering Ordinary time tomorrow. Is it just me, or is Epiphany setting us up for Ordinary time?

2. Call and Response: Kimberlee nails it on the head when she said that loving those around her isn’t easy. I know I’ve shared before, but the idealized version of me is so much more patient and loving than the me that actually has to interact with people. People can be annoying! Oh wait, love, right.

“For most of us, following the start means paying attention to the people around us, our families, friends, neighbors. . . . Epiphany calls us to move beyond the familiar, to be sure. But sometimes, maybe even most of the time, the familiar is not geographical.” I really liked that part of the chapter. If you’re reading along, what did you think of this section?

I’ve shared before why I love “We Three Kings” {even though I was screamed at}. It’s still my favorite Christmas song—though the story behind “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day” have it nudging near the top this year. On Epiphany as we think about the theme of giving gifts and responding in Ordinary Times, I want to leave us with a reflection based on the three gifts. It is from Tara Owens author of Embracing the Body:

Gold – what has been the treasure of your year? What are your glory moments, your beautiful blessings? For what are you most deeply thankful?

Frankincense – what are your earnest prayers? What do you most need to reach the ears of God? Where are you holding out hope above hope?

Myrrh – what must you leave behind, as we turn the calendar over? What needs to be buried, ceremonially put to death that you may have life more abundantly?

Britta and I did a short Christmas/Epiphany video as we are learning what these seasons look like lived out. If you seeing this in an email, you can watch it here.

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I don’t know what one says on Epiphany. Since it’s a feast day, after a long season of waiting and then celebrating the birth of Christ, may I offer a blessing?

May the God who met you as you actively waited, offering peace, hope, and joy, still meet you.

May He help you to pay attention to those around you.

May He enable you to move beyond the familiar as we enter Ordinary Time.

Amen.

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Grace and Peace,

Amy

The Church Year

Wonder at Christmas

It’s now Christmas time. Guess what, the Twelve Days of Christmas isn’t just a song, it’s the second phase of the church year. I have to admit, of all the phases of the church year, this one will take the most awkward leaning into. But I’ve challenged myself to my own “12 days” and am on the lookout each day for what my true love is giving me.

I tend to find the days before December 25th to be more full of wonder than the days of this week. Why is that? Because I’ve been programed to think that way :)! Not in an evil way, but maybe also not in the most helpful way either. So, here I am, with what feels like a very out of place post. Wondering what you’ll think.

(Get it?)

Childlike wonder at the magic of this season.

Skeptical wonder in the corners of a heart . . . wondering is it true? Is the cost worth it?

Hopeful wonder for what is to come this year.

As the Christmas song says:

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on’ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

God trusts us enough to hold wonder within us. Complex, beautiful, messy wonder.

Which of these wonders comes the easiest to you today?