Moving out was hard, moving in is harder. One is needed before the other however. One is a process of emtying, the other a process of filling up. Doing both at the same time is more difficult than I ever imagined. In the past I always had time to empty myself before I moved on, in fact I usually asked to be moved. This change unlike others was thrust upon me, and was so fast that I hardly had time to prepare in any way for the change of assignments. This one I accepted but hardly asked for. And there in lies the difference.
Maybe that is why this Advent seems like such a blessing to me. In the watching and waiting and listening of Advent, my perspective on this change changes me. I hope I am approaching this new assignment with an emptiness rather than a preconceived idea of what has gone on before. So far, as with any parish I have been involved with, there are good people, hungry people, searching people--we all have problems, but we share that common heritage, we are people. It is from the hunger and the searching that the new growth is able to come in and fill us up. We need to make room for Christ to come again into our busy lives, by becoming less busy. we need to make the space for him to fill. We are like the people sitting in darkness waitng for the light. If it were light already would we anticipate the coming of a greater light. In this holy darkness, there is a blessed light. It starts small, and grows to change all things. It begins to fill us up with what we need not with just what we want. This is a holy time.
I still struggle with the emptying.
Maybe that is why this Advent seems like such a blessing to me. In the watching and waiting and listening of Advent, my perspective on this change changes me. I hope I am approaching this new assignment with an emptiness rather than a preconceived idea of what has gone on before. So far, as with any parish I have been involved with, there are good people, hungry people, searching people--we all have problems, but we share that common heritage, we are people. It is from the hunger and the searching that the new growth is able to come in and fill us up. We need to make room for Christ to come again into our busy lives, by becoming less busy. we need to make the space for him to fill. We are like the people sitting in darkness waitng for the light. If it were light already would we anticipate the coming of a greater light. In this holy darkness, there is a blessed light. It starts small, and grows to change all things. It begins to fill us up with what we need not with just what we want. This is a holy time.
I still struggle with the emptying.
