Friday's thoughts

What would cause a person to be silenced? What might be the reason someone would stop talking and take everything into themselves?
What evokes silence in our lives?
What makes us take stock of ourselves; take inventory of where we are and what we are doing with our time on earth?

Three things come to mind. Are they universally true or is it something particular or peculiar to me?

Zechariah, John's father came to realize that the son he and Elizabeth were going to have was one who prepared the way for the Messiah.

What, in our lives makes us realize we are preparing the way for something important? Three things:

1. When we realize we are preparing the way by giving from the heart. No gift is small when it is given from the heart.
2. When we realize we are preparing the way by living from the heart. No loss is a loss when we are living from the heart and doing the right thing no matter what the consequences.
3. When we realize we are preparing the way by loving beyond our life. Death has no victory when we realize we have participated in the love that death cannot squelch.

In the sermon Sunday we are going to consider what it means to live our lives in a manner that "prepares the way" for something beyond us. The primary way to enable Christmas to come; the Christ Child to be born in us; is to make straight the way; to see ourselves are going before that which is coming after us.

It's all about hope. It's all about seeing what isn't there yet, and bringing about what is yet to be.

If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net.
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Charles Schuster