Advent Meditations- Saturday, December 16

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Psalm 30,32, 42, 43; Haggai 2:1-9; Matt. 24:1-14; Rev. 3:1-

On a Wednesday night a few years back, I was at the Continental Club on South Congress. At the end of his set, Jon Dee Graham looked out into the darkened room, and he paused for just a moment, clearly trying to put together what he wanted to say in closing.
What he said was this: “Don’t be so afraid. You don’t have to be so afraid.”
I begin with Jon Dee’s invocation against fear because I have been living with a lot of anxiety lately, and I know that I am not the only one. As we reflect on a hard year, we hope for some clarity from our sacred texts. And we arrive, as we do every Advent, at the End of Things.
We look around, and the world seems so dark and dangerous that we don’t know what we’re supposed to do next, and we sometimes forget that the battle that truly matters has already been fought—and won— on our behalf.
This Advent, we are again anticipating Christ’s coming, living into our annual reminder that God loves us, suffers alongside us, and would do anything to draw us into abundant life with him.
Annie Lamott has said that the most profound spiritual truth she knows is this: in the darkest times, just when it seems as though there is no way for Love to conquer all, it does.
And so:
Don’t be so afraid.
You don’t have to be so afraid. All will be well.
Give us courage for these days and make us a light in the darkness we pray, in the Name of Him who told us not to fear. AMEN.
Dr. Greg Garrett
Writer in Residence, Senior Instructor
SEMINARY OF THE SOUTHWEST
Listen to the Greg read his meditation and prayer:
http://ssw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Greg-Garrett.wav

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Greg Garrett is, according to BBC Radio, one of America’s leading voices on religion and culture. The author of 25 books, he is Professor of English at Baylor University, Writer in Residence at the Seminary of the Southwest, and Theologian in Residence at the American Cathedral in Paris.

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