Advent Devotion Day 19

Well, we’ve almost made it to Christmas. Do you hear the angels sing? Are you being swept away by the glad tidings? Have you seen the star?

In the book, Wild, Cheryl Strayed chronicles her experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. She leaves behind the comforts of what we would consider a normal American middle class life to hike and camp out in the wilds for weeks. Toward the end of the account, Strayed comments: “I didn’t know how living outdoors and sleeping on the ground in a tent each night and walking alone through the wilderness all day almost every day had come to feel like my normal life, but it had.”

As we consider the theme “Glad tidings of great joy to ALL people,” we might consider what has become normal for us. I would suggest that “bad” news has become “normal.” The paper is filled with bad news – government problems, financial problems, killings and crimes, global warming, war and violence the world over, corruption, declining student achievement, increasing rates of obesity, accidents and deaths, and so on. Ask someone what’s going on in the world and you better be ready to sit down and listen for a LONG time to all the bad news.

Ask about the glad tidings, the wonderful, positive things going on, and the response may be quite brief. That’s not because it is so, but because that tends to be what we know. The negative has become our “normal.” To choose to see and spread glad tidings is practically an act of subversion. There are countless good things, medical advances, acts of generosity, amazing achievements, expressions of compassion, positive improvements and significant strides taking place in all aspects of life. To see them, know about them, and share them – that is to create a new normal. A perspective that expects and sees the goodness in life. And it IS there. Everywhere. All the time.

This does not mean that we deny the bad, the heinous, the evil that goes on around us. But it means that we are not cowed by it. We do not orient our lives to accommodate the fear and negativism of that “normal.” Instead, we trust in the power of love and goodness to triumph. In short, we trust God. Look for the glad tidings. Listen for the glad tidings. If necessary, dig for the glad tidings. They ARE there.

Prayer: There is so much suffering and injustice in the world. Jesus came to respond with love and compassion. He triumphed over evil with goodness and mercy. His witness continues each and every day. May we look for it with openness and joy. Amen.