Stay Awake
Mark 13:24-37

....And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake." (Mark 13:37)

Every time the season of Advent rolls around I think of new beginnings. Advent reminds us always to be aware of learning to live each day, each hour, yes, and even each minute as a new beginning.  We are urged to  live each moment as if it is pregnant with new life, each day as full of promise, discovering the presence of God in a new way that we weren't completely aware of before. I believe that this is what "keeping awake" that is sounded in the Gospel today is all about.  The coming of Christ, God is human form and human experience is all around us in the midst of our ordinary days if we could be awake enough to see it.

I know we are tempted to think that there is nothing new under the sun so that we have to look for some future event that will make everything clear but there is much to see in the present moment if our eyes are wide open to the mercies of God. As Henri Nouwen points out in his book of meditation and reflection Here and Now, Living in the Spirit:

      There are many cunning foxes jumping on our shoulders and whispering in our ears the great lie: "There is nothing new under the sun....don't let yourself be fooled." 

      When we listen to these foxes, they prove themselves right: our new year, our new day, our new hour become flat, boring , dull and without anything new. 

      So what are we to do? First we must send the foxes back to where they belong :in their foxholes.  And Then we must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying: "Let me show you where I live among my people.  My name is 'God-with-you.'

      (Henri J.M. Nouwen Here and Now, Living in the Spirit, Crossroad Publishing Company, N.Y., 1994, p. 17)

"Keep Awake" and discover the new life hidden in the moment, waiting eagerly to be born.

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Deep within us we have the feeling that there is more to life than we are seeing now. Many people look all over the place to experience that "something more".  They will spend hours in prayer or look in all many ways of worship for it. Some will travel halfway around the world to visit an ashram in India, or a monastery in some other country.  The truth is that you can find it right under your feet, in everyday activities and encounters in your life. in moments that are hard or easy, joyful or painful, in something as simple as going to the grocery store. But in order to see that God is with us in all these moments, we have to keep awake.

I think of Jacob in the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis 28) running from his home, his father dying, trying to escape his brother Esau's fury because he had cheated his brother out of his father's blessing.  With his past biting at him running for his life with no more than the clothes on his back, he found a place to rest using a stone for a pillow.  He had a dream that in that place he experienced the presence of God saying "Remember I am with you..." . When  he awoke there was nothing out of the ordinary around him.  It was the same wilderness, same rocks and same sand but he was overcome and could only utter, "Surely the Lord was in this place and I did not know it.....How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven".

This place in the wilderness, among stones and sand, and in the midst of fear and trembling Jacob called it the House of God. It too is an awesome experience for us to discover again and again that the whole world is the house of God and we can encounter God at any time and in any place especially when we can "keep awake" to God's presence in all the circumstances of our life.

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One question we can ask of ourselves this Advent season is : "What is given us life in our current situation and at this present time?" and keep asking it every day and throughout the day then we might discover that God in with us no matter what. It is a question you have to answer yourselves.  I can only answer for myself in my situation. I am always limited to my experience.

I can say how I have experienced in the past which has enabled me to look for similar experienced in the present and to be surprised that God is surely in the place and I didn't know.

I have experienced new life in my relationship with other people sometimes in our agreements and even when we disagree. - there can be growth and new understanding. Sometimes it was as simple as the way someone responded to me in an email - I had the feeling that they were glad that I was alive and with them. On celebrating my 75th birthday I received so many greeting on Facebook that I wrote back:

      A special thanks for all those who recognized my birthday both on line and in person. I felt very honoured as people seem to be saying "We are glad that you are here among us" . I'm glad that I am still here among you.

I have been aware of that God is active in the midst newspaper reports and when I presented news on the radio. Sometimes I discovered something in the report that give me a new appreciation of the human experience even in the midst of tragedy. It wasn't so much in what happened but the way that people responded  to what happened which was completely overwhelming and life giving. Sometimes in the midst of the most hateful and violent acts, we become aware that love is stronger than death and destruction. Love is at work where the power of death is strongest, even in war and persecution, homelessness hunger and physical death itself. Love is present here and there, in the smallest and most hidden ways as in the greatest and most visible ones. Light triumphs over darkness.

Sometimes it is in the midst of our darkness I have found deep within a  hidden spring welling up in my life with the power to heal and to breathe new life into me.

Sometimes it has been in facing challenges that in the beginning seemed unsurmountable but as I persisted I found something life-giving in the struggle. 

Sometimes it is in my painting releasing in my a creativity that is overpowering.

There are so many life giving discoveries that I have experienced over time that it would be  too numerous to list the all. I 'm privileged to live near the ocean and just spending time on the beach listening to the waves and being aware of all the life that surrounds me is a life giving experience. I live on the East side of Vancouver Island. Some time ago on the west coast of the island where the waves are extreme at times,  I wrote a poem of one of my experiences by the sea

          Wild Waves

      The wild waves are breaking on the shore
      as if escaping from some far off land
      refusing to be harnessed
      and taming all that lies within their path

      They then creep across the hardened sand
      to bring refreshment to our tired souls
      Along the shoreline are the riptide warnings
      and gulls are seen near waters edge
      like small communities
      gathered near the source of life

      One has to marvel at the dangers of the sea
      yet all it nurtures in it's way
      But the same such power
      often lies within our grasp

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"Keep awake" always seeking and watching for the new life eagerly waiting to be born.

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    THE GODDESS WITHIN
    MUSIC PROJECT

    Each year, thousands of women and children become homeless as a result of domestic violence.  "The Goddess Within" music project is designed to empower those whose lives have been affected by domestic abuse and to raise awareness of this issue.

    "The Goddess Within" compilation album will showcase artists and their songs, written for or relating to those escaping the cycle of violence.  The C.D. will be distributed throughout North America and proceeds from the sale of the C.D. will be donated to women's shelters.

    More information on the CD is available at ARTISTS FOR CHANGE

    My daughter Carly is featured on the album with her song The Mask. 
    The art for cover for the CD album is the creation of another daughter, Mary Anne Molcan.

    Another site to access is Ending Domestic Abuse

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Mary Anne is a very talented artist.  She has a new web site called Faerie Artist where she displays her Art.   You can access her site at:


Faerie Artist

 
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