Category: Advent

a weary world..., Advent

O Come, Ye Unfaithful, Despairing, and Defeated

Rebekah Freed

O Come, All Ye Faithful is one of my favorite Christmas hymns. The repeated refrain “O come let us adore Him” feels like it draws me closer and closer with each phrase. However, the first line struck me as odd when I heard it for the first time this season:

“O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.”

“More like unfaithful, despairing, and defeated” came my sarcastic side-comment. (There might have been an eye roll as well.)

The specific week leading up to that thought had been discouraging, specifically in all the ways I felt I hadn’t lived up to the call God had for me, the ways I had been unfaithful, the ways I was discouraged and lacking joy in that moment, the ways I felt anything but triumphant. It all led me to wonder…

Is there room for me? Can I come too?

I’m not trying to criticize a beautiful hymn I love, yet I think it’s missing part of the picture. God does long for the faithful, joyful, and triumphant to come, but that’s not all. Time and time again throughout Scripture we see that Jesus came to earth so that the outcast, lonely, and discouraged could also come. That’s what this Advent and Christmas season is all about.

Yes, there was room for me. The adoration called for in this hymn comes when we remember that our Savior was born to redeem our unfaithfulness. In that there is true joy and triumph. It’s not about our faithfulness, but His. God of God. Light of Light. He is steady and true. All glory to Him, the Word who appeared in flesh.

So yes, come, faithful ones… come, let us adore Him.
Come, also, unfaithful ones.

Come with your weary hearts and your stubborn minds.
Come adore Him.

Come defeated and discouraged, lonely and lost.
Come adore Him.

Come joyful ones filled with hope.
Come cautious ones filled with doubt.
Come adore Him.

Come strong ones and weak ones.
Come adore Him.

O come, ye unfaithful, despairing, and defeated.

Oh come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!

woman alone looking up at the sky; snow falling with trees around
Advent, Devotional, Joy

LAUGH!

Rebekah Freed

I wake up one morning and lay there in bed a while. I had been working for 6 months or so to get the iron levels in my body back up to normal and now, most days, I didn’t even notice it any more. But this day, I noticed; there is still a ways to go. With the stores of iron depleted, strength and energy can be depleted too. While it’s not a big deal and soon will be resolved, a lack of iron can inhibit a body’s ability to carry oxygen throughout, making the act of getting out of bed on a cold December morning an undesirable task.

Considering this, my hand slides toward the night stand and pulls back a book. And these words catch my attention from an Advent devotion I’m reading the fourth year through…

“Laughter… oxygenated grace.”

Like iron-filled, oxygenaged cells are needed for my heart to pump and my body to live, laughter fills up grace, gives it life and strength, so my soul can live. Anemic souls, like cells, need oxygen too.

When God’s breath of grace fills our lungs, we can choose joy over fear. We choose laughter, because in these hard, uncertain times— in health, in families, in marriages, in our country, in our world—grace is what we need and sometimes it’s laughter that makes it possible. When the tears flow and our entire soul feels lacking in iron-like strength, we laugh. Because God is still good and God is for us and God longs for us to enjoy life, to enjoy Him. Perhaps that’s one way we are able to get out of bed another morning, putting one foot in front of the other.

Laugh!

And suddenly I’m reminded of a moment from earlier that week standing at the front of the church. Bowing in reverence, contemplating the seriousness of my sin and the beauty of my Savior’s sacrifice, I prepare to recieve the beautiful gift of Christ’s body and blood. Something happens and suddenly a giggle starts; it can’t be contained. My Pastor and I try to keep it in, control it, but we

can’t.

stop.

laughing.

It seems so irreverent, so inappropriate even by some. But there, in God’s presence–receiving this gift of Christ’s strong and powerful blood in me–I think God smiled and laughed with us. When amazing grace overcomes us it often overflows. And as that oxygenated grace (a.k.a. laughter) filled my lungs and snuck out in uncontrollable giggles, hope awoke, joy flourished, and all seemed well with my soul.

The world remains in shambles around us, uncertainty lingers awaiting what will come next in our lives, and who in this whole wide world even knows what this day will bring. But, as one proverb says:

“[A noble woman] is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.”

Proverbs 31:25

So find a reason to laugh a little today. No more fear! Only dignity and nobility! Only strength!

Let the corners of your mouth creep up when the world pushes you towards a frown. Don’t ignore the hard, but stare it in the face, fill up your lungs with that “oxygenated grace” and laugh. Offer that strong grace to others as well.

Perhaps the opposite of fear is laughter itself. And there is nothing to fear… in this day, this week, this life. His love is faithful… and because of the Lord’s faithful love, we are not consumed by the anxieties of this world (Lamentations 3).

Sliding the book back to the nightstand and my feet to the floor, these words from the author’s heart echo in mine:

“There is nothing left to want. There is nothing left to fear: ‘All fear is but the notion that God’s Love ends.’ And His love for you never will. So loosen up, because the chains have been loosed, and laugh the laughter of the freed. Laughter—it’s all oxygenated grace.”

– Ann Voskamp

Breathe it in deep today! Be strong!

LAUGH!

Advent, Wonder-Full Wanderings

A week of joy… {wonder-full wanderings}

Rebekah Freed

Week 3 of advent complete and we’re heading in to the final stretch. Anticipation building on this last day of only lighting 3 candles on the advent wreath.

This week we got to add the joy candle.  It’s probably my favorite!  The pink standing out against the purple.  Bright against darkness.  To be honest I’ve spent a lot of time this week wondering what I would put in this week-end post about joy. I struggled not because there was no reason for joy in this week but because I began to realize how these blessings of God, these fruits of the spirit … Hope… Peace… Joy… How they all just kind of blend together.

For example, I think we might be able to argue that it’s impossible to find yourself in a place of true joy without God’s peace. And can you have peace without hope in our Savior? It seems unlikely. 

Despite how much they blend together, here were a few special moment of JOY this week:

  • Witnessing a beautiful young woman I know join God’s family forever through baptism. 
  • Worshipping with the youth band on Sunday morning. Sitting there with some amazing youth, using the gifts God has given them to enter into true worship of our King and through their song, inviting a couple hundred people to join them in the throne room.
  • Time spend with children, especially my awesome goddaughter and her two siblings… Experiencing Christmas through the eyes of children I think automatically brings joy.
  • Dinner with one of the most amazing women I know. 
  • Little kids giggling in my backseat.
  • Laughter with teammates
  • Answered prayer

And the list goes on and on… The big things… The little things.  Even if happiness eludes us, joy remains and the hymn reminded us to keep speaking joy over and over: “Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy.” 

And repeat it we do because there we remember the love of God.

“The secret of joy is always a matter of focus: a resolute focusing on the Father, not the fears. All fear is but the notion that God’s love ends. WHEN DOES HE EVER END!?!” 

– Ann Voskamp 

No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in this season, Joy HAS come to our world because the Lord Jesus has come. May we receive Him with glad hearts! 

  

  

Advent, Wonder-Full Wanderings

A week of Peace {wonder-ful wanderings}

Rebekah Freed

Peace.

The second candle lit on the advent wreath… A call to be still and know God is God and He is in control. 

Unlike with hope last week (where the theme seemed plastered all over my life) peace was a little harder for me to come by.  In fact, I may or may not have had a texting conversation with a friend earlier this week about being frustrated with God that despite asking (maybe even begging) for peace it seemed my prayers in that situation had fallen on deaf ears.  I had found myself accepting that for some reason our good and faithful God saw it fit to not change a situation right now, okay. But couldn’t He at least come through with the peace He promises all throughout Scripture!?! Was that too much to ask?

Like a child with a parent, demanding typically doesn’t produce the desired results and I found the same to be true of my heavenly Daddy.  It seems maybe He was actually LONGING to give me peace but He knew I wasn’t able to receive it until after I finished my “temper tantrum”.  

As I continued to wander through the week, eventually peace settled in. 

My Prince of Peace sent me a note through these words written on the bottom of a Christmas card:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

He sent a faithful friend to encourage me and challenge me. 

He showed up in little kid laughter and a gorgeous sunset and in staying up way too late reading by the Christmas tree.

I just needed to remember that our Prince of Peace is also the Emmanuel, God with us… Always…Whether I sense his nearness or not, He never leaves. 

Unlike princes in fairy tales, I don’t have to sit around waiting for my Prince of Peace to come riding in to slay the dragon and rescue me… He already did that. And this Christmas, if I let myself, I simply get the joy of anticipating the day when there will be no more tears or pain or suffering or death..(Rev 21:1-5).

Only peace. 

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come Prince of Peace.

Come!

  

Advent, Wonder-Full Wanderings

Ladder-Climbers {wonder-full wanderings}

Rebekah Freed

It’s before the sunrises on a new week and the bed is warm and a blankets are begging for a few more minutes of sleep, but a different calling rises, greater… The need for a different kind of rest.

Blog after blog, Facebook post after Facebook post talk of this busy time of year for families… School programs, parties, sports practices, on top of the shopping and preparing and just general craziness… and even with only myself to worry about, the busyness still invades. It threatens to take over, but once again it’s why these quiet morning moments, no matter how long or short, are critical… Oxygen to make it through the season…food for a hungry heart…rest for a weary soul.  

So the feet find their way to the floor, the candles get lit, the tree lights turned on, and I settle in.  The Scripture for the day talks of this ladder where earth and heaven meet… where Jacob declared “this is the Lord’s place”.  

Oh the ladders we climb–the corporate ladders, the keep-up-with-Jones’ ladders, the there’s-got-to-be-more-to-life ladders–all leaving us longing, never satisfied.  And then the realization that the ladder connecting heaven and earth was never meant to be climbed, but one by which our Jesus came down to us.  All my doings and thinkings and sayings can never make this “the Lord’s place” … Only the Lord in this place can do that.  Like we’ve heard but so often forget, this Christianity thing is not about what we do but about what He has done.

And so on this quiet advent morning, I show up, not to climb a ladder, not to prove myself, not to “be-a-good-Christian girl”. I show up because He showed up… in a manger and on a cross.  I come rest here not by my determination but by His invitation.  I seek not to check some boxes, but to adore a King.

And while the activities may still swirl around us, we step into the rest of the day with these mile-markers of Advent not found in any ladder-climbing pursuit: 

Hope… 

Peace… 

Joy…

Love. 

We shine them bright in a dark, desperate world of fellow ladder-climbers… pointing to the One who came down and made those things possible.

I’m watching for You today, Jesus.  Let’s do this day together!  Amen! 

 

 

Advent, Books, Wonder-Full Wanderings

A Week of Hope {wonder-full wanderings}

Rebekah Freed

Week one of the beautiful advent season… One candle lit on the advent wreath… The hope candle.

  
The flame dances small but mighty both on the wreath and in our souls.  I don’t believe it’s coincidence that everywhere I turn it seems the ‘word of the week’ appears.

All through the pages of God’s Word:

“Be strong and take heart all you who hope in the Lord.” – Psalm 31:24

“I wait for the Lord, my souls does wait, and in His word do I hope.” – Psalm 130:5

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13 

On the kitchen wall:

  
In a book I recently picked up:

“And hope happens here at this nexus of bitter and sweet. I will not talk myself out of hope, hiding behind Scripture to support all my reasons for being ‘wise’ and ‘measured’ in my responses to the not-yets in my life. Because when I choose to engage in that awkward intimacy of believing that He might say no while asking expectantly that He say yes, He gets the most beautiful part of me. 

Hope is my precious oil, mingling with tears to wash His feet.

Hope, and the vulnerability it brings, is what moves His heart.

Hope, and how it draws me to Him, means not one of those minutes curled up in pain was lost, not one of those minutes of closeness with Him is forgotten… I can discover that our greatest testimony isn’t found in those moments of victory over weakness or even in the moments of hope fulfilled. It’s found in waiting, wanting, adoring.” – Sara Hagerty

And isn’t that what this season is all about anyway… The waiting, the wanting, the adoring? 

This hope is a daring thing, because “who hopes for what we already have“?  And yet as Christians, that’s exactly what we do.  We live in the “already” and the “not yet” all at the same time.  

We have the promise: He WILL come again!  

We have the inheritance: life forever in heavenly bliss.

We know the end of the story: He wins! We win! 

Yet we still live in this painful, war-torn, desperate world, hanging on desperately to hope.  But as the advent season continues on to an advent week 2 adventure of peace, the hope flame stays lit too.  May it be true in our hearts as well. 

“Hold onto hope. Hold onto hope. Even those closest to you will challenge it, as the world around you collapses, but hope is your greatest weapon because it is an invitation into the Unseen.  … One day, the Unseen will be more real to you than what your eyes can perceive.” – Sarah Hagerty

 

Advent, College Ministry, Prayer, Wonder-Full Wanderings

 {wonder-full wanderings} at UB 

Rebekah Freed

This semester I have seen God do amazing things through the time I have spent at the University at Buffalo campus.

Also true: This semester not many things have gone as planned in our work at UB. 

 “Wandering” feels like a pretty applicable word in trying to figure out where God is calling us, specifically with our Lifetree Cafe ministry. God has made it very clear that our presence on campus is necessary.  I’ve talked to at least twenty students who all think that this is an amazing ministry that needs to be happening on campus, and yet some weeks not a single person shows up.  

As I kind of talked about in my first advent post, the neat thing is that even in all the “wandering”, wonder has not been absent. Every single time I’ve left the campus this semester I’ve done so in complete awe of God’s work in that place.

Tonight was no exception.  

To sit in a room with 20+ Christian leaders right smack dab in the middle of thousands and thousands of students from all across the globe praying for them, praying for our world, praying for peace in tragedy and hope in darkness, praying for salvation of souls… Yea, it’s pretty holy ground. 

To see the fields ever so “ripe for harvest” and to be in the presence of some of the workers God has sent… it does something powerful in your heart. 

To know that the thousands of students you see walking by out the window might not have even ever heard of the Christ child born in Bethlehem, evokes urgency and passion.

I still have no clue exactly what God is calling me, or First Trinity, to specifically do in that place, but He’s working and I’m so thankful for the any chance He gives me to join Him.  

Truly wonder-filled wandering at its best! 

” We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” – 2 Chronicles 20:12

 See all of this advent’s Wonder-full Wanderings posts here.