Advent considerations...

Humility always comes (should I say "often" comes) in ways that are surprising and jarring. At this point in my life, I still don't like their arrivals but have come to pay attention and listen for their deeper meaning. In just the past week:

+ One shock came in the recent illness of my sister - she was hospitalized with kidney failure and assorted other hardships - and it awakened me to how much I,too, avoid medical attention. As one of the docs in my congregation likes to say: If we had to wait for men to make doctor's appointments we would all go out of business. (Ok, ok, I finally got an appointment today!) I really hate owning how much I can procrastinate, but it is all too often true.

+ Another came in how hard it is to learn new tricks - especially jazz bass tricks - which I am still working at but have a LONG way to go. Let's face it, you can take an old rock and roll, blues folkie to the Village Vanguard but there's no guarantee he'll be able to play along with Mingus. (George Benson, maybe... but not Mingus.)

For me Advent is often more about considering what is REAL right now than what is likely to be born within - and that is humbling, too. I want to be different - but that means I have to change - and sometimes I have to be shaken into just paying attention to what is already going on. After all, I've NEVER liked being awakened from a deep sleep.

Hmmmm, somethings take a LONG time to change...