{"id":8343,"date":"2018-12-18T14:46:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T20:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=8343"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:41:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:41:31","slug":"entry-into-advent-the-pacing-of-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2018\/12\/18\/entry-into-advent-the-pacing-of-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Entry into Advent: the pacing of discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">Psalm 80 is often read in churches all over the world during the Advent season. Throughout this psalm of yearning we pray, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">\u201crestore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">I live in a neighborhood that shares rhythms of prayer each day. We are a community of persons with all sorts of abilities, limitations and gifts, attempting to welcome one another into the reality of God\u2019s presence with us, here and now.\u00a0We seek to proclaim this reality through our daily lives of mutual care and friendship among persons with and without developmental disabilities. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">Recently, after we read Psalm 80 as part of our morning prayer, one of our wise sisters, Amy Lynn, offered this plea:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">&#8220;Jesus I want you to see me.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">I want to see you.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">I want to see your face.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">I want you to come close to me and hug me.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">I want to see you all around me.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">I want to see you in the people walking around; people I know and people I don\u2019t know. I want to see you and I want you to be close to me.&#8221;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MVI 0291 1 1\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MeCT3EccK6o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">I sprinted home to jot down this longing for a holy vision of the world because I surely didn\u2019t want to forget it. We were led by a tender prayer of yearning from one seeking to see and be seen by God: a picture of Advent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">Over the last several years, I have gradually learned \u00a0to see prayer as an encounter of discovery. In his book \u201cInto the Silent Land,\u201d Martin Laird offers a framework for the spiritual life by distinguishing between discovery and acquisition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">Much of my life, I have been formed to imagine basically everything as an opportunity for achievement \u2013 a chance to prove, to compete, to gain something. But in the gift of prayer, we are invited into a different way. We are invited into a discovery of what is real and true and beautiful through no merit of our own. In the gift of prayer we are invited to discover a new vision of the world; God\u2019s vision. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">God alone is the Holy One, abundant in mercy and loving-kindness. We are at union with God in Jesus, and we are the beloved of God in Jesus. This is a reality we cannot acquire on our own. It is a gift in which we participate through discovery in the Holy Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">And discovery has a pacing to it. I certainly know the pacing of acquisition. There is a necessary speed inherent in reaching for self-promotion or organizing my schedule based on efficiency. This pacing is often frenetic and hasty in its certainty that there are better things to do (or, at least, other things to do right when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">this thing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\"> is finished). The pacing of achievement is pretty fast. This pacing, though, can be destructive; steamrolling organizations or people or ways of life that can\u2019t keep up. The pacing of achievement can creep into the our spiritual life, bolstering the illusion that practices of prayer are meant to merit something not already there. This pacing can even diminish our capacity to rightly see and encounter Jesus coming to us in the form of the one who is vulnerable and in need of care. But the pacing of discovery is a bit different. Thank goodness I am surrounded by friends and neighbors who remind me to receive time as a gift and to release my tight grip on the idol of busyness. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">But discovery takes time.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8345\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8345\" style=\"width: 648px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8345 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image.png?w=648\" alt=\"painting-Mary\" width=\"648\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image.png 651w, https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image-150x115.png 150w, https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image-300x229.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8345\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Original painting, depicting Psalm 34,\u00a0 by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.janicejoylittle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Janice Little<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">In Advent, we receive the gift of time as we wait and prepare and learn to eagerly anticipate the coming of our Lord.\u00a0One of the reasons I appreciate celebrating Advent each year is that it is a season of discovery. In Advent, we wait anew for the coming of Jesus \u2013 the same coming we celebrated last year and the year before. Yet each year, we are invited to enter Advent with an openness to being changed by new beauty. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">In Advent we unearth our own little obstacles to the transformation of the coming of our Lord who reigns over all the earth. In Advent we excavate our true identities as participants in the very life of God through the birth of this little one \u2013 baby Jesus.\u00a0And yet, Advent isn\u2019t Christmas \u2026 so we wait and we sit and we still ourselves and we receive time for silence in order to receive and respond to the one true word of God, Jesus Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">Amen, there is a pacing at the heart of Advent. In this, the first season of the church calendar, we are reminded to slow down. This slowing down allows us to remember Christ\u2019s first coming as a baby in Bethlehem, Christ\u2019s final and ultimate coming in all glory in the redemption of the world, and Christ\u2019s coming in each moment of our lives here and now through the Holy Spirit. In Advent, we are beckoned to hesitate in front of God in prayer and in front of one another in our relationships. Hesitation makes room for us to wonder at the presence of God in the other and to anticipate in openness the coming of our Lord in unexpected ways. How often does our quick pace cultivate patterns of enclosing ourselves in inattention to God\u2019s presence around us? How often does our haste enclose us in predetermined formulas for God\u2019s activity in our life?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">When Psalm 80 framed Amy\u2019s prayer, it was laced with longing. This Advent, may we cultivate a longing for God\u2019s coming. May we gain a vision to see all the tiny ways God comes to us each day. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">May the Holy Spirit lead us into a humble openness to discovering and participating in the Word made flesh \u2013 Emmanuel \u2026 God is with us. May we receive the time to hesitate in front of one another and to kindle desire for God as we echo the prayer of our dear friend, Amy Lynn \u2026 Jesus, we want to see you, we want to see your face, we want you to come close and hug us. Amen.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>ABOUT THE RABBLE ROUSER<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Greg Little<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8346\" src=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/1-4.jpg?w=225\" alt=\"woman-man-holding-baby\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/>Greg Little is a husband to Janice and father to JoyAna, and he has a home at <a href=\"http:\/\/northstreetneighborhood.weebly.com\/corner-house.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Corner House<\/a> in Durham, North Carolina<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">. He has learned from various schools, including several Christian communities seeking justice and peace (a Catholic Worker home inspired by St. Francis, Durham\u2019s Friendship House, and Haiti\u2019s Wings of Hope), and is committed to a life ordered by daily communal prayer and littleness. He works at Reality Ministries, a place proclaiming that we all belong to God in Jesus through fostering friendship among people with and without developmental disabilities. Greg and Sister Julia recently met in the wonder of an interfaith dialogue about monasticism and the contemplative life at <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/mepkinabbey.org\/wordpress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\">Mepkin Abbey<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight:400;\"> in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Psalm 80 is often read in churches all over the world during the Advent season. Throughout this psalm of yearning we pray, \u201crestore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.\u201d \u00a0 I live in a neighborhood that shares rhythms of prayer each day. We are a...","protected":false},"author":149585903,"featured_media":8345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2178641],"tags":[142153,698755378,137849,1885,1296507,7155,698755374,698755381,9369,401,7816,8329,661159,853,310551,86178,936],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-8343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayer-and-spirituality","tag-acquisition","tag-advent","tag-anticipation","tag-beauty","tag-being-busy","tag-calendar","tag-community","tag-contemplation","tag-discovery","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-pacing","tag-prayer","tag-slowing-down","tag-transformation","tag-waiting","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/image.png","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"refjr0e06T\"><a href=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2018\/12\/18\/entry-into-advent-the-pacing-of-discovery\/\">Entry into Advent: the pacing of discovery<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2018\/12\/18\/entry-into-advent-the-pacing-of-discovery\/embed\/#?secret=refjr0e06T\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Entry into Advent: the pacing of discovery&#8221; &#8212; Messy Jesus Business\" data-secret=\"refjr0e06T\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! 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Throughout this psalm of yearning we pray, \u201crestore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.\u201d \u00a0 I live in a neighborhood that shares rhythms of prayer each day. 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