Advent is a season of waiting and anticipation. We await the coming of baby Jesus, but also long for God to come and set the world right. Our hope is in God's ability to transform what is into what can be. This season is also a call to remain alert today for the ways God is currently at work in our lives.

It's here in church that we learn and experience the great love of Jesus. Out of that love we create a place we want to come home to week after week. And these walls should not, cannot contain us. At church, God's love energizes and invigorates us so that we can go out into the world and spread love. Having been to church, we can then be the church out in the world. 

In our world today, it's so easy to separate ourselves from people who look differently, think differently, and act differently than ourselves. This often leads to an "us versus them" mentality, and we dehumanize others before we even get to know them. But, Jesus calls us to live differently. He calls us to love, respect and value all people despite our differences. 

Being part of a church family gives us a place to be loved, to belong and to be transformed. It reminds us that God can redeem even the darkest and scariest parts of our world. And the church encourages us to live with courageous love and the hope of resurrection. 

The struggle of maintaining our worldly success can often feel like failure. That's because the world's image of success is spiritually bankrupt. When we live seeking the world's approval we are always striving for more, but when we live seeking God's approval we are covered with grace upon grace.

We have the ability to "flip the script." To respond to anger with kindness, to hate with love. These responses and attitudes often do not make us successful in the world's eyes. Yet, these are desirable traits in the eyes of God. This way of being is the way to success, to fulfillment and the life that God intends for us.

The integrity of the Christian life is not about success. It's not about doing all the right things and everything always working out. It's about the pure grace of God that is flowing out into our lives. We worship a Savior, who's life and ministry, to all eyes of the outside world, was a complete failure. God used what looked like a failure, for God's greatest success.

The earth is here for God's glory, not for our use and consumption. We rely on stuff to bring us purpose and meaning, but God wants us to re-orient our lives and our perspective to make him the center of our lives...not our stuff the center. 

God asks us to do our part - to care for the gifts that has been given to us, including our beautiful world. Not just adding more things to our to-do list, but as a spiritual practice.  

Creation radiates the beauty and majesty of God. Spending time in nature not only benefits us physically and mentally, but also spiritually. When we take time to stop and admire the world, we will see that God is all around us.