Dan Jurek

Often I read scripture, and a phrase grabs hold of my spirit and I stop to wonder and ponder it’s meaning for me. I’ve read the verse or passage many times before, but in a specific moment in time, the Word steps into time and speaks to me – personally.

Tonight was one of those moments. Reading Psalm 131: “Truly I have set my soul in silence and peace. As a child has rest in its mother’s arms, even so my soul. Oh Israel, hope in the Lord both now and for ever.”

Setting my soul in silence and peace – resting – waiting – being.  Advent continues to “set my soul” and place it in the context of the silent night. I don’t place my soul in a void or an empty abyss. Like a child rests in its mother’s arms, I set my soul in the arms of Abba, my Father. I set my soul in confidence that His presence is real, alive and creates a safe place for me to just be.

Come O Lord and set us free, bring your people peace!

I marvel at this time of year. Advent. Waiting in joyful hope. Waiting… Waiting… Waiting to be transformed. Waiting to overcome my fears. Waiting to break through the hesitation and embrace the fullness of Christ. Waiting to fulfill the dreams that lay in storage yearning to be found like a lost treasure. Waiting to love deeper. Waiting for something that has not yet … yet I know I will recognize it when it appears and makes itself known. 

God the Father did not wait. He anticipated the coming of His Son from the beginning.  He formed into clay – human. Man and Woman in His image and likeness. He set His plan into motion from the beginning. The first parents, Adam and Eve prepared the way for the foreseen incarnation of Christ.

Tertullian writes: “Think of God as totally occupied with and given over to this – with hand, perception, labor, counsel, wisdom, providence and, above all, with love itself, which produced its features. For although it was clay that was being molded, it was Christ who was in mind as the one who was to become man, because the Word was to be both clay and flesh, just as the earth was at that time.”

So the Father created man and woman – and He waited, for the fulfillment of time. Then the angel declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy Spirit, and the Father waited for the birth of His Son.

And so I wait. I wait for the Lord to come during this liturgical season of Advent. I wait for the Feast of Christmas when He was born of the Virgin and took the form of flesh. I wait for His coming again in Glory. Whether it’s when He calls me to himself in death or when He comes again in Glory to Judge at the end of time, I wait with joyful hope.

During these days of Advent, I prepare and wait for His coming into my life on a deeper level. Through my own on-going conversion from death to life – repenting of my sin and failings. I remind myself of the dreams and desires He has planted in my heart; the ones that I have allowed to become cold and distant. I lean into the fire of His Holy Spirit and pray for the warmth that comes from the love of the Incarnate Word – Jesus.

And so I wait, with the Church universal. I wait for His coming at Christmas. I wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. “For the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory are Yours, Almighty Father, now and forever!”

Come Lord Jesus!

During my years as a high school campus minister, I referred to this wonderful simple story often to challenge my student ministers (myself included).  We can’t become complacent and comfortable living the gospel life. I hope you find it as inspiring and challenging as I still do.

On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

Some members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as sort of a club.

Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in this club’s decorations, and there was a miniature lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities, since they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. They did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.