Are you ready? 20 days left

Life is here & now; it is right in front of you, behind you, all around you, & in you.

Each day people are starving, people are homeless, people are being shot at around the world. Today the big news is a shooting in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm sure this isn't a big news report around the world, but maybe it is. These things are only a few things that start to get a person down in spirit.

This isn't the season of low spirits though. It's advent, a time where people are awaiting the birth of God's son. The son of God that saved our lives. How could anybody not want to be prepared for that celebration? I know, not everybody believes in God, but I have personally explored other religious beliefs and Christianity is the only one that makes any bit of sense to me. The funny thing is that it is not the tangible facts that make me believe, it is the unknown & the unexplained. The miracles such as baby Jesus grew up to share & the simple miracles of people that still believe in a world of terror & harm. This is a world made of humans who only long to have all the answers so that things may not be horrible in any one persons world, but the thing is that no one human has all the answers to the shootings or the hungar or the homeless.

Are we prepared for baby Jesus to come? I have a secret that shouldn't be so much of a secret and hopefully it isn't. Baby Jesus, He's here, He's been here, all around, for hundreds of thousands of uncountable years. How crazy cool & confusing is that?! Baby Jesus is the reason we as humans have life so that life that is here & now & in front of you & behind & all around you & in you, all that is baby Jesus which in essence is God & the holy spirit. So when things start to seem so hard as they some times seem to this time a year more than other times, no matter what you believe, know that there is a HUGE celebration called Christmas ALL over the world celebrated in many different ways for the birth of this baby who left a powerful impact on the world & that you are invited to join in just by acknowledging that the life in and around you is yours given to you. It is a gift worth celebrating and giving thanks to Jesus by knowing each day that you've done your best in all you've been involved with no matter what & shared that bit of Jesus with all those you interacted with. Be joyful for all that you have.

My team & I are joyful for all the wonderful people we've been blessed to meet through Youth Encounter, through Racine, in the churches we're working with, and the worship services we've been able to go to. Each day may bring a different challenge, a different hungar, homelessness, shooting, but each day God is with us breathing into us giving us reason to be joyful. Be ready!