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.