Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now

by Scott Erickson

Spirituality is making what is invisible visible; religion is the rituals, rhythms, and practices we form to connect to that visibility.

And then I could throw a Meister Eckhart quote at you: “If the soul could have known God without the world, the world would never have been created,”

The process of growth is always uneasy, because growth never comes through ease. It comes through the stretching and expanding of one’s own capacity to push on ahead.

The difficulty in letting God grow you is the trust that is asked of you when you aren’t quite clear what the outcome looks like. When you intentionally do more sit-ups or eat less meat lovers pizza, you may have an image in your mind of what it might look like to feel more comfortable for swimsuit season. But when you say to the Giver of your life, “I want my life to be meaningful. I want to serve You with my life. May it be so according to what You desire,” you have no idea what secret cosmic strategies have been put into play to answer that request.

“For nothing will be impossible with God” was the answer Mary received from the messenger when inquiring about the mystery of how this could happen,1 and I believe we get the same answer about the mysterious transformation of our own lives. Most of us will not have an angel announce those words to us. But I do think all of us can whisper the statement that the Divine is looking for to do deep transformation and restoration: “Let it be to me according to your word.”