Podcast: Advent 1 (Matthew 1:18-21)

I don't know what we're doing, but.

That's a good intro. Course, there's the cold intro.

Hey friend, welcome to another episode of this Sunday.

Sit down and I'm gonna talk a little slower so that you can

put me on 1.5 and listen to us quickly.

Did we get complaints? No no, no no no.

I just know that there are people out there listening at

1.5 so shout out to all my 1.5 listeners because that's how I

listen to books. Some people are like I often get

asked how do I read as much as I do and the trick is to listen on

audible at 1.15 times. Speed.

That's the. Key Yep, Yep.

And it keeps my brain engaged. Yep.

So we hope that you're having a great start to your advent in

the name of not 1.5 times in your life.

We are trying to encourage you to slow down and we are trying

to encourage ourselves to also do that.

So I know we we made candles this weekend.

We did not together, no, not together with our families.

Our families and I took to heart because we talked about that

last last Monday, we talked about that and and that was one

of the practices we had outlined.

And so, yeah, we got these little candle kits that are kind

of kind of meant for kids, but also, you know, we're doing it

with kids. So works and we made our own

years were more liturgically accurate.

Mine my my family went rogue on some of the colours.

I love that which I I was a little bit antsy about, but.

We stuck to the purple, the pink and the white and we managed.

So we got one like really short tiny candle and then one really

tall candle and then one medium wider one like we we managed to

figure it. Out my so so my daughter kind of

went off vibes of like, you know when we talk about the different

weeks. So she's like, well, anyway, I

feel like yellow is a joyful colour, so we're gonna go with

that. And I was like, you know what?

I I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't deny.

That see, it's way better than what we did, which is why, why

are we making it purple, dad? Because that's the colour it's

always being. Yeah, I gave a little bit better

of an yeah, of a, of a, of a, you know, example or reason why

the liturgical colours are what they are.

Yeah, but. Yeah, I know, I know.

Essentially, that was the answer.

Well, this is the way it's been. Which, you know, is.

I love that answer. As churches, we give that answer

far too many times. And, and sometimes that's OK,

and other times it's, you know, a poor excuse or poor reason to

to keep something the way it is. But I digress.

Otherwise we could get on a train.

We don't want to get on. But I did have we had a really

beautiful moment like it was out.

We had dinner last night. We we then made the made the

candles and then we lit we lit the one the hope candle and we

kind of turned off as many lights as we could with still

being able to read because we read the the advent devotional

together as a family. I told her, I told our daughter,

who's almost 10, and I was like, she she may not understand or

grasp all of it. There's some big words in there,

but we're going to do that together as a family.

Yeah. Yeah, I love it.

I love it. So we did the exact same thing

in the afternoon. We made candles in the afternoon

and put them on the dining room table.

And then at the beginning of dinner, as we were just kind of

all sitting down to eat, we set the table and then lit the

candle red. Anna, actually my my oldest

daughter read from Isaiah. And then we left.

Let the candle burn during dinner because that's about as

long as I want. Like they're small.

And small candies wax, which they burn quickly, melts.

Yeah. But yeah, so we just had it, We

had it on during dinner and like 1 is not a statistically

significant number, I'm told. But like it, it shifted.

It felt like it shifted dinner for us it we were able to slow

down and talk a little bit more intentionally about our day and

our day together. And you know, my kids were

asking questions about like, what does that mean in the verse

or like how do we understand what's going on?

What, what like, why are we doing this?

And those are, those are great, beautiful slowdown moments and

they're easy to miss and rush through.

So one for one I've I appreciate it.

Well, we'll find out next week. Maybe we'll check in and see how

things are going. But I know for me, like this has

been I, I think for me and I, I think that you can probably

relate to this in your own ways, but like there has to be such an

intentionality to, and I'm just even like slowing down my

cadence. As I say this, I'm slowing down

because, and what I mean by that is I was definitely feeling some

like anxiety and sort of like hurriedness in my spirit going

into this past, you know, weekend and whatnot.

Like we had not only the usual plans to like for our Sunday

service and getting all the things ready, but we had, we had

a funeral on Saturday that you and I were both a part of.

You know, I, I had a bit of a, a pet related emergency that I was

dealing with, like, and just feeling the like, just feeling

this, this pole of like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna get sucked into

it like a vortex of anxiety. And, and, and, and just the

exact opposite of what I want for, for this season.

And what the exact opposite of what we were describing last

week. Yeah.

And so I don't know what that's been like for you, but that's

that's kind of what I've been trying to do and somewhat

successfully. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you, you had a

lot going on this weekend and I think that's.

So we got a comment on one of our posts and the the comment

said a number of different really good things.

Just it kind of expressing this. Yeah, all, all in on the idea of

slowing down. But how do we balance the

reality of life? Like how do we balance the fact

that, you know, if, if we're a, you know, if you're in a home

with two parents who are working, like that's, that's

busy, That's a hard season to manage right?

Where if you both need to be working, which is kind of

everybody right now, most, most people like that's the reality

of life. That's that's much more

difficult to slow down. Or what do you do for like a

single parent who's working, trying to trying to work a job

and a half just to make ends meet.

Like, you know, I think in, in the one, on the one hand, it is

like we do have to step back and recognize, um, it, it, it's a

gift and like a privilege even to be able to talk about slowing

down and OK, what are we going to remove from our lives?

Like some people are not able to do that.

And I left a comment back because like I, I feel that too.

Like I just, I feel the the, you know, the stress of people's

lives. Yeah.

You know, it's one thing to say, yeah, ideally we it's good for

you to slow down and it's good for you to stop doing some

things. And it's good for you to take

more time and be in more intentional.

It's one thing to say that and then it's another thing to have

that really push against the the difficulty of life.

And for many people, all I left on that comment was, Yep,

feeling the same things. This is what I love about

community, which is that some of us have more bandwidth, some of

us have less, have less. Some of us have maybe a bit more

energy to be creative, some of us have less.

And you know, just a really simple thing.

This week, an example of that in a, I'll say simple but profound

way or significant way. I had like every plan and

intention to get our prayer room completely set up and ready to

go with all the stations. I got 1 station complete because

there was, there's you know, Sunday to be ready for and the

funeral to be ready for on Saturday.

And all of those pieces on top of, you know, first week of

Advent is always kind of crazy. So had somebody come along and

say, hey, walked into the prayer room and said I'll take care of

this for you this week. It needs some.

It needs some help. I love that so much.

And I as do I like here's the ego pieces like no, no, I can do

it. I can do it.

I can take care of it. I'll I'll make it better.

I'll make it look better than it does now, but like the, the

community accountability, like surrender, um, shoulder to

shoulder side of things. The much healthier side says,

actually, you're better gifted at this than I am anyways, and I

love that you're offering to do this.

Thank you. I need the help.

Absolutely. And like I say, like that,

that's a, a it, it was a significant thing for me this

week. That's not like a life or death

thing. That's not a food on the table

or not thing. That's that's, you know, not a

sick kid or not or like, like there are there are other things

that this is not. Yeah.

But what it is, is I think a good example of the fact that

we, every single one of us needs to settle into a community and a

community rhythm. And as much as we're trying to

cultivate individual personal practices and personal rhythms,

what we're really trying to cultivate is together.

A rhythm as a church, yes. So that when you've got like a

funeral and a Sunday service and a pet emergency and, and, and

you go, OK, we got you covered, right?

And here are some other ways that we can help out.

And you can't slow down. So let us do some things for

you. Yeah.

Another really good example is with a whole group of people go

to a house this weekend and do a whole lot of prep work for a

family who who needs it. Yeah.

And, you know, without their permission And without going

into further detail, you know, I think it was a beautiful example

of a church rallying around a family in a significant time of

need and a significant time of change within that need.

And here's the thing. You and I got a text message

about it just simply saying like, I think this was one of my

favorite days being a part of this church ever.

And it wasn't on the property. It wasn't on the property, and

you and I weren't there. Yeah.

And that's not to say you and I should feel guilty for not being

there. No, what I'm saying is like, the

church was being the church, The community was being the

community for a family who can't slow down right now.

And so a group of people who could take a day and not do

other things said we're going to do these things on your behalf.

It's one of the most beautiful things that the body of Christ

can, can do and be. Yeah.

Absolutely. So I just to just to like,

summarize it like one of my hopes for our church is that

with all of these practices, what we're doing is creating

space for those things to happen.

Because as we as individuals or as families or as households

learn to create more space. What that does allow is for us

to have the space to see a need and go, oh, you know what?

I can step into that. I can do that.

That's one thing that I can take care of so that you don't have

to shoulder it. And that just helps kind of

raise the burden off people who are like, yeah, you know what, I

would love to slow down. I'd love to make candles with my

kids. But I'm working 2 jobs.

And after they go to bed, I'm online doing like my second job

remotely. And, you know, it's enough if I

can get my work in and spend some time with my kids and put

them to bed and have meals on the table.

And, you know, like this is this, like you said, this is the

beautiful thing about how the church is meant to live.

So that's my hope for us is as we individually figure it out,

what that is going to change is that we're actually

collectively, communally, corporately as a church,

changing the way we are. And together, because you can

imagine that, yeah. And it ends up being able to be,

we end up being able to fill in the gaps for one another in

seasons of of particular intensity for others, but maybe

lightness for others. And it and it not to say it's

all just going to eat it out, but just to say that like, like

God, God can enable his people to be at work in other people's

lives for those seasons. And it's, yeah, it's a beautiful

thing. Hmm.

So it kind of actually ties in a little bit to where we were this

past Sunday. We opted into Advents Week 1.

You were in Matthew chapter one kind of looking particularly at

the story of Joseph. And then as we look at this

story of, of, you know, this unexpected kind of moment for

him as the Angel comes and delivers this kind of bomb on

Joseph, this is going to change his life, change his world.

It was it was unexpected. It was confusing.

It was extremely disruptive to, you know, he's thought I'm I'm

betrothed to this woman, Mary, and we're going to get married

and maybe we'll have some kids and it's going to be great, you

know, and all of a sudden it's like, Nope.

Well, God's got other plans right?

And so kind of connected to that, like how maybe this is a

question for you is just like, how do you respond?

How do you respond when you get like, obviously we're not gonna

have a disruption like that. Yeah, that's kind of a, you

know, once in a once in a universe kind of disruption.

But like we have, we all have disruptions, we all have moments

of of sort of unexpected issues coming up.

Like what? How do you, how do you tackle?

How do you respond? Yeah, sometimes better than

others. I think that's yeah, that's a

challenge. So, OK, I, I think there's,

there's a couple different kinds of disruptions, right?

Like there's everyday disruptions.

And you know, I, I think when, when I'm like personally, when

I'm at my best, I'm able to move from one thing to another.

When I'm at my worst, I have a really hard time shifting from

like OK, one task is disrupted now by another task.

I think the, the thing that I hope for myself to do, because

I, I think it's different to start talking about God

disrupting you. Yeah, right.

Like, yeah. So the first thing is, how do

you start to discern whether it's God disrupting you or just

a disruption? Yeah, and that's a good starting

point. Yeah.

Is it a good disruption? Is it a helpful disruption?

Is it one that I should be paying attention to?

Is it not? Like how do you how do you start

to figure out where a disruption is God speaking?

So here's Joseph, like the way we have it in Matthew, Joseph in

a dream is visited by an Angel who says very specifically, hey,

I know that way. I know you've been thinking and

you could do that. I'm gonna challenge you here.

Don't do that. Instead, go do the thing you

know, I think at the end of the day to be right and good, which

is go take Mary home, marry her. And using Mary Mary.

Yep. And then and, and you know, the

son that she's going to give birth to will be the savior of

the world. Like it's it's a very big God

moment type style disruption. Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, I think we all just respond differently to

little disruptions. The thing that I would say is in

my life would I have come to realize is that while God does

disrupt us like this on occasion, these types of

disruptions, and I'm pointing at my Bible here.

It's Matthew chapter. One the math each other like so

you know God speaking to Joseph in a dream.

That level of disruption is not the only way that God is going

to disrupt your life. And far more often, those

smaller disruptions are actually opportunities for you to listen

to what God is doing. Yeah, because even if they're

not these God sized disruptions, which probably don't happen, if

we do have them in our life, it's often not only a few times

in a lifetime, you know, like maybe a few like seasons where

it's like God kind of arrests us and it's like, OK, I'm trying to

grab your attention here. Yeah, more often than not is the

small things. And, and I think how we

cultivate responses to the small things over time can kind of

potentially help us in those big moments where God is truly

shifting something or dropping an earth shattering bomb on us.

Or whatever. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So we were talking like not on

recording last week, a little bit around this question that I

that I heard somebody suggest that church is all churches ask.

And I really like it in interviews and I don't remember

where I heard it first. This is not this is not my

thought, but maybe we're talking about on the podcast.

But when was the last time you said yes to God as being a

somewhat of a gauge on where your spiritual health and

hearing like your ability to hear God is actually sitting.

So like, if you can think back over your last days and weeks

and months and try to ask yourself that question, when was

the last time I said yes to God? I think that's the invitation in

the disruption. Yeah.

So in as our as disruptions come into our lives, I think one of

the things that I hope I do is simply turn to a posture of

prayer and asking God that God is a is like, is this, is this

something that you are wanting me to say yes to?

And then, OK, how am I like, how are you inviting me to respond

in in this moment? And is this gonna be something

that is, you know, is this something that is gonna be

pulling me or pushing me closer or further away from God into

these moments? Like, I think it's good even in

some ways, just to listen to how you're feeling.

So for me, disrupted #1 is this a disruption, God that you want

me to say yes to? Yeah, because if it is, game on,

and if it's not, move on. But you know, there's some more

obviously there's that it takes more than just like a quick

question, OK, not not right. Great.

No, no answer. Yes answer.

OK. Like, I think that what you were

trying to do is just cultivate a, a, a habit and a practice of

like responding in prayer and just being open to what, what

God is doing or not doing. And uh, yeah, worship night last

week, I think definitely. Let me take you just completely

through very quickly a disruption.

So I had this so so we had this worship night at the church and

beautiful, very different than a Sunday morning, but just so

anointed, I think in terms of God's presence and power, people

showing up to worship and saying to pray.

So partway through I started sensing Hey from God, go and

anoint this. Go and anoint this person.

And so that's language that makes sense to me.

Um, now in, in the New Testament, writers talk about

when somebody is sick, you gather a group of elders

together and you go in and you know this person for healing.

And we're like, Yep, kind of not 100% sure exactly what's

happening as we do it when we do it.

But it's one of those things that I look at scripture and I

go, it says very clearly and very specifically to do it

boldly. So I'm like, game on.

We're going to do it. And at that same moment, so

sensing this from God, one of my kids runs back into the

sanctuary and sits down beside me and then actually like lies

down and wasn't feeling great and is now like snuggled up just

kind of listening to the music. And I'm like, well, this is

fantastic. Like in here just listening to

music, but also a little bit of a disruption because I had had

this very clear sense from God go and anoint this person.

And so my kid looks, you know, this couple minutes go by and

I'm, I'm not sensing any different change like in the

like, go and do this thing. And like, so now like, do I make

my kid go back? She's not feeling good.

Do I say, like, sorry, kid? Like, yeah, like, I gotta go and

do this thing and I'm gonna leave you here or go back to,

you know, the kid zone where all the other kids were playing,

like. Like that's how pastors, kids

grow resentments toward the church.

Yeah. You know, like, so like that,

there's a little bit of attention there.

And this is not a significant thing, but it, it is.

So a minute more goes by. My kid looks up at me and I had

the oil, the vial in my hand. And she goes, that, what's that

in your hand? And I said this, it's a, it's a

vial of oil. And when when people are sick,

one of the things that the Bible tells us to do is to anoint

their head with oil and to pray for them.

And she goes, I don't understand.

And I said, come with me, I'll show you.

And so she came and we anointed this individual.

And here's my kid, seven years old, putting her hand on on this

this person and praying for him. What a beautiful moment.

And that's that's remarkable. So, so like, that's not a yeah,

go Grant, no that and in no way is that a story of me being a

successful parent. But you but you somehow were

able to do both of the things that you were being called to in

that moment that that hey, like it wouldn't have been right for

you to just like, sorry, kid, I got ministry calls, you know, I

got to do the thing that, you know, but inviting, inviting her

into that moment. And also like I, I kind of have

to believe that it was, you know, a God, a God thing that

that she had the you know, the thought of like, Hey, I'm gonna

what what is that that, you know, like, because it it, it

provides an opportunity, right? And, and so maybe that's like

something that I'm sort of in inferring from that is, is like

like seeing disruption as as an opportunity for, for God to do

good things, right. Sometimes the disruption is just

a disruption. Sometimes, you know, like this

is a busy place. Sometimes here the weekend, we

get lots of like just intermittent disruptions

throughout our day. And sometimes those are just

annoying when we're trying to like buckle down and get some

stuff done. But it's also just life.

But like, these are not those sorts of disruptions, but sort

of these what you're describing here.

Like what is God trying to teach us or teach you?

Teach your child like, man, yeah, that's that's that's

powerful. Yeah, so I think it's a posture

thing, right? Because it's so easy.

I know my like I'm, it's so easy for me to get frustrated, like,

Oh no, I was supposed to do this thing and I'm not able to get

this thing done. And that's going to change this

thing over here. And you just start going down

that trail. And I think the invitation is

just to stay as open as possible and say, God, like, what?

OK, yeah. What?

How do you need me to be in this moment?

Is it just a good starting? Point.

Yeah, Yeah, I think, I think for me, I in, in my disruption,

which was in this case a pet emergency, Yep, Which I don't, I

won't, I won't get into all the details, but one thing that I

had to do was really just say, OK, God, what do I need to let

go of here? Um, and, and I, and I don't, I

don't attribute that necessarily to like, you know, being totally

altruistic and to like I, I don't think it's, again, it's

not like a pat me patting myself on the back in a moment, but

it's just like, OK, what is the right thing to do here?

And God, how can you help me let go of of some stuff, right.

And, and like that's, I don't always do that well, but, but

that was kind of where my posture was this past weekend of

like, OK, OK, God, I think I need to let go of some stuff.

And, and God, would you help me to do that.

And, and, and so like, that's, that's something that I was just

thinking about as, as, as I was reflecting on, on how I respond,

because I don't always respond. I can often get anxious and

frazzled and sort of go into just like, um, not control.

I'm not a, I don't think, I don't see myself as a

particularly controlling person, but I can be sort of just like,

OK, we're just going to get things done.

And until these distractions are all dealt with, you know, like

that's sort of my posture at times.

And and I my sense this weekend was more like, Nope, you just,

you just maybe just let go. That's like, OK, I'll try that.

Yeah, yeah. See how it works out.

Yeah, so far so good. So far so good.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it it is difficult.

And I think the thing that I hope people here is we do this

well. We do this well sometimes, and

we do it not as well other times.

Yeah. And one of the challenges is to

slow again, like, I'm going to sound like a broken record, like

you, you need to live a different pace in order to do

what you've done, which is to say, OK, now what do I need to

do? Like, what do I need to let go

of? We're going to do the right

thing because we believe it's the right thing.

Yeah. And you call us to do the right

thing. My cat's still alive by the.

Way they also worked out well, Yeah, Healthwise.

Yeah, yeah. But yeah.

So, so, so. It is like you can imagine a

pace of life that prevents you from even having those initial

conversations. We're like, well, this is what

we're gonna do because it's not in your case, like not sure in

your situation, but in any situation, we're not even gonna

entertain the idea that this is a possibility because I have too

much going on. So this is what I pointed out

about Joseph is like Joseph made-up his mind.

Hmm. He's made-up his mind and God

changes it. Yeah, which, as a simple

definition goes, is a great way to start talking about

repentance. But he had he had made-up as I'm

actually going to read it because it's it's a good like

it's just a good reminder that you need to live a different

pace in order to really like, I think allow God to change your

mind on things. So unwilling to put her to

shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

Others mind. Other translations had had it in

mind this. Is the thing that I'm gonna.

Do Yep. And this is like, I'm gonna try

to do it graciously or generously as possible.

Like at the end of the day, the outcome is still the same.

She's a single mom on her own, which is not like that's a

social death and for many probably of a literal death in

in certain situations and circumstances, but at very

minimum social death, the outcome is the same.

He had it in mind. He'd resolved, He made-up his

mind and God changed it. And I go that changes the pace

of life that you start to live at when God does those things

and when you allow them to change your mind on something.

OK, I had it in mind to do this. Yeah, I'm going to allow you to

change my pace, my speed of life, my day, my schedule, my

control, my desire, my want, my whatever it is so that you can

do something and listen like there's a theologian side of me.

So God's gonna do what he's gonna do anyways.

But the invitation is to respond and to be open to in, in, in in

many ways, I think to be curious about what God is doing.

So curiosity, hmm. And there is, I mean, there is a

sacrifice that Joseph had to make in that moment.

Like I think in the in the sense of of like man like that even

for for Mary, it would be far worse for for her to have been

left alone that Joseph certainly had to be counting the cost of

taking Mary to be his wife while pregnant with.

I mean, they others aren't gonna know it's the son of God, right?

So like there's a, there is a certain weightiness to the

decision that he had to make and, and he chose the path not

of self salvation, but of, of, of doing the right thing.

I'm doing the one what God called him to do.

And, and so like, I don't know, like just talk and talk for a

moment. I mean, this is the last thing

we talked about just about, about sacrifice, about with some

things that we could be doing. You and I, our church, whoever,

that that might get us to that place where we can be open and

receptive to God's disruptions. And also just maybe that there's

some things we need to sacrifice and let go of that God might

just be calling us to because it's the the right thing to do.

Hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Difficult question. Love it.

So yeah. How can we sacrifice?

I think, Well, let, let me, let me start here.

Connie and I, my wife and I did, um, years ago, before we were

born or before we were born, before our kids were born.

Goodness, before kids were born we did this.

So admittedly this is easier to do when you are like fully

autonomous, only responsible for yourself and like espouse,

right? But harder to do with kids.

We did this challenge. Connie came home with this idea

and at first I was like this is no part of me wants to do this

why why? But she been doing a lot of

reading and writing in the arena of food security and insecurity

and supply and demand. The reality that we have.

I don't know how many times the amount of food required to feed

every single human on earth and don't it's, it's a distribution

issue, right? Not a, not a production issue

and all the things. So say one thing that we're

going to do. So we're going to, we're going

to not buy anything, no food until we eat everything in our

house, everything that we've stored up in our freezer,

everything that we've stored up in our pantries.

The last can of beans that's dented like, you know, on the

side because it's fallen out of the cupboard 27 times and it's

got like dents all over it. The can opener can barely open

it. Exactly.

You just keep chucking to the back, right?

Like the dried beans from three years ago that you've got to

soak for three days before you can eat them or even cook them.

And, and at first I was like, this idea stinks.

This sucks. This is going to be like the

worst month ever. And it was like, it was our

first year of marriage and we were trying to just figure

everything out. She comes with this idea and I'm

like, I guess fine, I guess. So I'll try it and still like 10

years later, it's it. It will be something that I

remember us doing until probably until I die.

Like it was really fun. And again, like, it's just, I

mean, even to acknowledge the fact that it's a privilege to

have food stored, right. Yeah, yeah.

Like, I've got, we've got, I mean, the average household has,

and I'm not going to remember all the stats.

So you can Fact Check all of this, but it's multiple weeks,

if not months. I think it's multiple months

worth of food in their home just stashed away and mostly

forgotten. So one of the things that it

taught me is, um, and like I, I love Connie for this because she

is such a better person than me and like, she's like full on.

Hope she listens. Like, so probably not so many,

so many good ideas, but like she loved it and it was like this

creative outlet for just like trying all these crazy different

recipes of like, let's add this and this and this.

We're eating the weirdest things, but it was a blast.

OK, so this is like a smaller version of that that, you know,

my wife was traveling for work last week and and I just timed

it not allow for like a grocery grocery store.

I mean, I could have done an online order, but I just wasn't

thinking that. So I just like, I was making do

with what we had in the home. And so like, and I've been on a

on a, on a bean kick. You know, I think there's a,

that's a bit of a trend right now.

Just it's, they're cheap and they're yeah, fiber and protein

and all the things, right. So, so I was like, I'm gonna

find a lot of ways to use this big case of black beans that I

got from Costco, you know, and I made like my own, like, you

know, like BBQ beans and did like cheesy beans on toast and

things like that. You know what?

It was good. Beans are the food of the

future. Man, they are.

They need to be. Yeah, absolutely they need.

To I thought you were gonna talk about that soup that you made

and I'm like. You know, had that.

But the soup, Yeah, there was nothing.

I was like, I was like, OK, I've got, I've got this butternut

squash. I've got this.

I've got this cauliflower I need to use up, otherwise it's gonna

go to waste. So I'm gonna make a soup.

Yeah. OK, but I had that soup this

year with This month was not that soup.

That was getting. Up but but you get the idea.

So, so again, like the goal isn't like ohhh, shoot, now I

gotta do this crazy challenge, right?

What it taught me was we consume goods without really considering

what we have or don't have and what we need or don't need.

Yeah. So it changed the way I think on

good days, on bad days, doesn't on good days.

It changed the way I think about our consumable goods, food,

clothing, the things we bring into the house or not.

So it, it changed because, hey, like you start to realize, Oh my

goodness, like this is a we have a lot of fun mixing, like just

throwing stuff into a pan and seeing what happens.

Yeah, we ate some terrible meals, but we also ate.

Some don't romanticize it too much, but we.

But we also ate some really good meals and it just like it.

It puts you in a different frame of mind.

It taught me that, hey, I'm gonna be more, I'll be more

grateful when I shop. I'm even more grateful when I'm

following a recipe to a tea, which is something that I really

like doing. Like I love like when I can get

a recipe out and like it's probably the only area of my

life where I'm if it says to put some like a tube, a teaspoon and

1/2 in, like I'm weighing it out, like I just give me the

grams, not the anyways. So I like, I love doing that.

And it just taught me to let go of some of those things and to

be more conscientious about what I am consuming, what I'm

throwing away portions not. And that's great for food.

You know, you might be able to do that for food, you might not.

You know, some people have healthy relationships to food.

Some people have unhealthy relationships to food.

So like you've got to figure that out for you.

I can't dictate that for you listener.

But what it did was I now buy clothing differently as well

because it's I I consider, I consider it differently.

And again, on the poorer days, I'm like OK, Black Friday sale,

great. I'm gonna like what?

I'm gonna buy 7 T-shirts that are all the same and on good

days I'm like no I'm going to slow down and before I buy

anything I'm going to dig everything out and I'm going to

wear it all once and whatever doesn't get worn is going to get

donated or thrown out or like maybe it just needs to go to the

bin but the garbage. But it it changed the way I look

at how we consume things. And so we're talking about

sacrifice just to bring it all back home.

Um, I think that we can romanticize or overcommit to

these big challenges, which might be good.

The only thing I've ever learned in the big challenges that stuck

with me is how to think differently about the small

everyday things. That's the benefit really.

Like, you know, you do a long, fast, fine, good, whatever.

Great, just changes the way you think about day-to-day.

You know, you do this month of food thing, whatever you wanna

call it, eat your freezer. The only thing that's really

going to change is hopefully like how you purchase and how

you a lot food like day-to-day and week to week and how you

consider it like it's going to change those small things.

Or something like, you know, we've talked a lot about

technology and, and some of the, I'm just dangers of just the

constant scrolling and doom scrolling and all the things

like, and we had challenged some folks over the summer to like,

you know, really eliminate all that.

And I know that it changed some things for me, not everything,

but a lot of things. And, and so I think that's the

hope, right? Is that like when you do the big

thing you sacrifice for the season, you can then start to

work through some of your patterns and, and adjust and,

and cultivate a life that is more balanced.

I don't. I like that word balance, but

like a life that is, that is more less prone to some of the

extreme proclivities that we may have.

Yeah, yeah. So Joseph had to sacrifice.

What did he have to sacrifice? Probably most of his social

capital. Yeah.

Right, you know, would would have been one of the things that

first to go out the door in, in some way, probably his own

religious, um, like ritual purity and the way he related to

his, his religious community would have been sacrificed the

way he related to his social community, which were the same,

but socially, religiously, like he's, he's laying down his own

status to do this. So I think that that would be

the way I'd want to challenge our our folks, right.

Is is there an area of your life where you can lay down call it

status, call it privilege, call it ability, whatever that piece

is that just your pride? Yep.

What is something that can you can allow into your life that

challenges those things to go. Yeah, it might you know, maybe

you want to do a similar food thing.

Maybe you want to do a similar clothing thing.

Maybe you want to do this like whatever tech thing but.

I think that it starts to starts to look like changing the way

you relate to others. So Joseph doesn't lay it.

He doesn't sacrifice for his own sake, no sacrifices for the sake

of Mary. Who you could, I think you'd

argue things this earlier. Mary had more on the line, you

know, Mary. And so, like, I don't want to,

you know, like I think we we should look at Joseph and Joseph

has, there's some, there's some parts of his story that are

fascinating and and worth, worth emulating in some ways.

But I think it's just worth noting that Mary had more on the

line. Absolutely, Yeah.

So, you know, really practically maybe you're like, I am going to

do that food thing. And I would say, OK, so

Christmas or January. January might be better.

But luckily. So let's put, let me put it this

way, January is one of the lowest food like supply months

for the food bank. Yeah, they always need things

because what happens is everybody's like, we're gonna be

super generous leading up to Christmas and then like the

bottom falls out. It's all gone for the food.

Yeah, everything's gone and you need to replenish your stores.

So, OK, simple. I say simple.

I say that cautiously. One way that you could

sacrifice, I think for the sake of another would be to say

either everything we buy that is a luxury item, we're going to

buy 2 can give one away. Or as we don't need to purchase

as much ourselves, instead we're going to use that remaining

funds to purchase for somebody else.

Yeah. So that's great.

Yeah. Just a practical way to end, I

think, in terms of what it might look like for us to start to

sacrifice for others. Yeah.

And so as we think about sacrifice not just being a means

to an end for ourselves, but as as a way to honor God and to

bless others and to like that, that's a great reframing.

I because I think that there's a lot of a lot of our world, I

think can sort of have this, this attitude.

I'm just going to be refining myself and it's really for for

my own sake, right. And so, so I hope that, you

know, we can consider some of these things and, and even over

the month of December, how we might live, how we might live

differently. That's been our kind of our

theme over over Advent. I mean, it's just started, but

it's what we've been encouraging ourselves and you all toward.

And so we're gonna keep talking about this.

We're gonna keep bringing to mind the ways in which this

advents and Christmas God is calling us to do something

different and to be different people.

So I, and again, we'd love to hear some of your stories that

if there's something that you are contemplating, something

that you are working through, some way that God's shown up in

your life in light of all this, we'd love to hear that.

And you can send that to our questions at

courtrightchurch.org e-mail and with permission, we'd love to

share some of those if any of those come up.

So we'll leave it there for now and we hope to see you again and

have a great week.