A Delightful Routine
December 14, 2023
There's one key to my survival in a SUM, and it's this: Focus on Jesus.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3, ESV)
You know, when I first took on the task of writing for this blog back in 2017, I asked Lynn, 'What is the key purpose we're trying to achieve?' Her answer: Focus their eyes on Jesus.
What a great answer.
For that reason, there are two points in our year where we deliberately stop and do that:
- In March/April, we look at Jesus' death in the Gospels and walk through that story carefully.
- In December, we look at Jesus' birth in the Gospels and do the same.
We do that at these times of year because the rest of the church is doing it, and it's a collective effort. It's been part of the church's routine for centuries, ever since the early church was established, and ever since they put in place a liturgy for bringing the different parts of scripture to their congregations. It's an amazing thing to think of the body of Christ collectively marinating in those stories, at those times of year.
We could spend December continuing to talk about the ins and outs of spiritually mismatched life, like we do for most of the year -- honestly, that topic never gets old LOL -- But I like the idea instead of pausing, breathing, and lifting our eyes elsewhere twice a year... Deliberately, and as a group.
Where does my help come from? Not from earth below, but from Him -- Jesus. He is my love.
So when I next write I'm going to share my own personal approach to how I connect with the birth of Jesus at this time of year.
In the meantime, how about you? Do you have any routines for how you go about connecting with the nativity story? I'd love to hear them, so let's share in the comments!
Love to you all
Ann
p.s. Sorry if I've been slow to reply to comments/messages -- I've been on a beautiful multi-day hike with my family and just got back last night. Am catching up now :-)