This post was originally published as part of the Advent meditation series at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA.
December 18, 2018 | III Advent, Tuesday
Ps 45 & 47, 48 // Isaiah 9:1-7 // 2 Peter 1:12-21 // Luke 22:54-69
And Peter followed at a distance. Luke 22:54b
I’m Peter. I follow Jesus at a distance, too…more often than I care to admit. I want to follow more closely, but the closeness requires something of me.
To follow more closely, I need to focus on whom I am following. I need to lay down what I am carrying. I need to relinquish my attempts at managing and controlling things. I need to release my desires to our God who faithfully and abundantly provides, even if differently than I might choose.
This Advent season, in the midst of papers and final exams for graduate school, the ongoing search for enough greeters and ushers and chalice bearers to serve on Christmas Eve, and myriad other tasks, I have felt a deep longing to draw closer to Jesus. It has been my intention to create still, quiet space each day to spend with God, but my mind wanders and I have felt restless and unsettled.
Even so, in my struggle, I have continually felt invited to come. I have felt invited to confess my distractibility and inattention, to name my longings and desires, and to lament the brokenness in me and around me. It has not been the peaceful, quiet communing with Jesus that I envisioned, but it has been beautiful and good.
Confessing my need and asking for help has been its own form of drawing near to Jesus. As we come in our lack, we are met by the One who promises to guide us until we die and who is our God forever and ever (Psalm 48:14).
Everyday Adventures 