Advent
It's been a dark beginning to the Christmas season. Some news we had hoped for that didn't pan out. Lease on our place is almost up - lots of discussion about where we want to be, and wondering if that can even happen. Trips to the dentist with the kids, charged with emotion and fear...ending badly. Bills. Discouragement in relationships. Listening to a sermon on our hope as Christians and feeling none of it personally. The weight of leading people in worship when my own soul is downcast. I'm not ready for "Joy to the World" yet. I am still in the longing of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." The choir sang a introit on Sunday entitled, By Night. "By night we hasten in darkness to seek for the living water. Only our thirst lights us onwards, only our thirst light us onwards." I loved it. It was minor and rich and full of dissonance. It expressed a truth I could honestly proclaim this week. How refreshing to begin a service with this sentiment, rather ...