One of the things I took away from my trip to Israel is things are not always as you imagine them to be, but God is there – in the surprises and the differences.
Jesus was full of surprises. At the end of his ministry, he talked about his coming again. Last week, as we heard: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Luke says it slightly differently: Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place… (Luke 21:32) But that generation has passed away, right? And many, many, many generations since. Yet we forget something important that we are reminded of in Peter’s letter: Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.
So what’s a generation to God? Who knows…but Jesus commissioned his disciples to go and spread the Good News. And we have been charged to do the same. Peter asks his readers a really good question: what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? How are we going to wait for Jesus, both in this Advent and in the seasons beyond?
We are called to share the Good News, not just verbally but by leading by example – living that holy and godly life that Peter writes about; to do that we need to be strong and fit – spiritually, physically and emotionally. How do you attend to your spiritual life? What is your equivalent a 30 minute walk three times a week? I’d encourage you to try daily prayer or maybe reading a passage from the Bible each day, anything to pause and assess where God is in your life at that particular moment, because trust me, God is there!
Waiting with you,
M.E.+
