Good morning!  Happy fourth Sunday of Advent! We are almost there!

Today’s Readings: Isaiah 40:25-31, Matthew 1:18-25

Today’s theme for our Sunday morning is Embracing the Darkness: Clarity. The quotes this week from the weekly church devotional are so great, I want to share them here.  Check them out.

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity.” (Francois Gautier)

“Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness.” (Michel de Montaigne)

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” (Melody Beattie)

“Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more – more unseen forms become manifest to him.” (Jalal ad-Din Rumi)

“Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves.” (Blaise Pascal)

“Clarity, clarity, surely clarity is the
Most beautiful thing in the world,
A limited, limiting clarity
I have not and never did have any
Motive of poetry
But to achieve clarity.” (George Oppen)

I got to thinking…when have I had the most clarity in my life?  When have I looked around me and taken stock of what I should be doing? It seems as though I find clarity in the most confusing dark situations or in the spur of the moment.  Spur of the moment clarity may be to call someone up because of a feeling or perhaps not to eat certain things or even to go down a certian path while walking.  The bigger clarity moments come out of darkness or tragedy or confusing moments of life….what should I do?  Where should I go to grad school? (After being in a memorial for someone that 400 people came to celebrate) what will I be remembered for?  How do I want to live my life? 

Where do your moments of clarity come from this season?  How will you embrace them as this week brings a Christ child in the middle of the darkness?

Peace,

C