This Week from Mitch

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope you are experiencing a blessed Advent. This week we enter into the third week of Advent. It's my experience that the third part of something is often the hardest. As a student, the third quarter of school was for me the most stressful. The combination of shorter days and fatigue from the first two other quarters always made it seem more challenging. As a swimmer, the third 50 meters in a 200-meter butterfly was often torture. It's the 50 when lactic acid sets into your muscles, your breath gets shorter, and you have to will yourself to focus on your technique. The third part of things is often hard. 

In Advent, we are called on to focus on the coming of Christ. As Christians, this means carving out time for prayer, worship, and the reading of scripture. In real life, however, the third week of advent is met with budget meetings, year-end reports, inventory at work, the rush to clean up small details before January 1, family responsibilities, gift shopping, work parties, children experiencing finals, people mourning the loss of a loved one and a first Christmas alone, financial pressure, ugly sweater days, and an assortment of things all of which make Advent hard. It's precisely in times like this that intentionally taking a moment to pray, to give thanks to God, or to ask for God's help and blessing is important. The third week of advent is the time when we are called on to focus on our technique. To breathe in the fact that we are wonderfully made and to breathe out our thanksgiving and praise... to breathe in the fact that we are wonderfully made, to breathe out our thanksgiving and praise... to breathe in the fact that we are wonderfully made, to breathe out........ 

In Christ,

Mitch+