faith – Page 5 – Eyes UP look OUT

If your house is anything like ours – the excitement for Christmas is brewing, especially from the 4 year old who had no concepts of dates or time, and has no clue what time frame we are working on when we tell her “not yet – soon”. The numbers on her advent calendar are wasted

I spoke this time last year at our MOPS morning in church all about advent. We attempted some cute advent crafts with the goal of keeping some sort of faith based activity in our families in the middle of the Christmas chaos.

As I was prepping for that morning, I was reminded about the whole idea of advent. The building up towards something.

The word itself is Latin and means – waiting.

Who loves waiting? Not me.

With Christmas – the wait builds a bigger anticipation. The excitement grows as the day get closer. The wait is a good one.

So what’s different?

The number 25.

We have a final peak, we know when and what it involves. The certainty of it is not up for debate. We know. The wait is exciting when we have the end in sight.

But what happens in the other type of waiting? You know the one I mean. The wait that has been longer than we thought. The wait that seems to have no best before or expiry date. The wait that has lost that excitement of the final moment. The wait that still doesn’t see.

Advent is a season of waiting. Original advent didn’t have the number 25 either on its calendar. The wait time was unknown. In fact everything about it was an anomaly. Israel waited on rescue and God sent a baby. What?

I’m drawn to the incredible way God works things out. Again there is a simple profound truth that God will always see and do things differently. And simpler again is the underlying crutch of our faith – do we trust Him?

To quote the husbands recently penned lyrics

In the waiting I will trust in you…

As my mind regurgitates information about waiting and as my heart feels all the emotions of a long wait…. the Christmas story points me to some home truths.

God is with us.

God is working in our waiting.

As surely as the sun rises each morning – He is faithful.

In CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – Narnia is stuck in winter. Spring hasn’t sprung for a very long time. The people of Narnia have adjusted to winter and the majority have settled. But there are whispers of hope heard in certain circles that Aslan is coming and he’s bringing spring with him.

I want to raise the whisper to a shout.

I want to be excited in the waiting, believing that the way everything plays out is detailed and perfect. After all – He is good, He’s for us and He gives good gifts.

Be encouraged… He knows where and when number 25 is.

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

CS Lewis

Christmas is just around the corner.

What a summer Team Boyd have had.

Our 2nd time as a family spending 7 weeks on the road with Aaron, making the most of our time together with a mash up of vacation and tour time.

I have to admit, the language I used pre this time went along the lines of…. “we are heading on holiday, and Aaron has to do some music things in between and I have to speak at a conference for part of it and then we get to holiday.” But as the end of our trip is close approaching I’m embarrassed that I had the whole thing separated and compartmentalised.

The idea that we had to do…..

and then we get to….

now seems stupid.

The best thing about being away with Aaron is that I get to see him in action. I get to see what life on the road is like. I get to meet the people who are like 2nd family to him, and now us. I have been so impressed by his ability to lead people into a beautiful sweet spot of worship whilst encourage them to make a difference in the world. Whether it’s to 10 people or 10,000.

This has definitely been a trip with a difference. I have loved every opportunity we have got to share Jesus and his kingdom, both formally and informally. I am once again blown away by the generosity of people, both towards us personally and the cause we shout loud for.

Aaron had (that word again) a goal of raising $30,000 for an organisation that is so incredibly dear to our hearts – WORLD ORPHANS

We saw $40,000 come in, along with a match donor making an incredible achievement of $80,000 towards this amazing cause.

And we GOT to be a part of that.

We are so thankful for everyone who has been part of this adventure.

To those who have hosted us – thank you.

To those who donated to World Orphans – you are legends who have changed a child’s life in a way that you may never fully understand – thank you!

I will no doubt write about my incredible time with the ladies at The 61 Exchange conference. For digging in with us, being vulnerable and allowing us to hear your stories – it was an honour and a privilege.

So my thought today is simply this – we don’t have to do anything. We get to. We get to be the hands and feet of our Father, just like Jesus, showing our planet what an incredible king He is over a beautiful kingdom where he wants us all to be citizens.

I shouldn’t have to go to the other side of the Atlantic to realise this truth, but sometimes a change or perspective is all it takes to shake us up for purpose.