“Right!”

Liz fears this word in our house.  It comes out of lips at the meal table in our kitchen or we are just about to go out as a family or in mid conversation in a coffee shop.  I do it sub-consciously (but occasionally consciously).  It signifies to Liz and the girls that I have had enough of waiting and this is the time for action.  Right!  Time to leave a meal table and get on. Right! Time for us to actually try to leave the house somewhere near to the time we actually agreed we would (I live in a house of girls!) or Right! I have just done my mental to-do-list in my head and unless the day has 36hrs I need to get going.

That is how it feels to me as I enter the season of Advent. Right! Here we go – time for action – if I thought I was busy before Advent then just wait for the next few weeks. There will be lots of ‘Rights!’ My very summarised to-do-list looks like this

• lots of services
• six School Nativities
• advertise this and that
• last Alpha meal/talk

Oh and Christmas, buy presents, work out what we are eating and write cards! The pew sheet just isn’t big enough. I think if Jesus returned, as described in Luke this week, I might, if He was lucky, find a slot in my list (but way down the bottom).  All these things are important but are they the most important and what should I be saying “right” to?

In Advent, we should be giving ourselves space and time to prepare for the birth of Jesus.  The Advent Quiet afternoon on 5^th December is much needed time and space in order to re-evaluate my to-do-list, so I can focus on the most important aspect of life in Advent or any other season – my relationship with God through his Son with the power of his Holy Spirit.

Steve