Preparing for Advent – What Does Jesus Want?

Greetings Dear Reader,

After following Christ for what will be forty years in April I think I have spent a million years pondering this question.  I dream about it.  I think about it unwarranted in odd moments.  I do my best to think honestly.  I read and study.  I posit and ponder.  In a season of giving thanks and giving gifts, what does Jesus really want?

So many today see Christianity as an exclusive religion.  In many ways it is.  Some of those ways are good and some are not.  When Christ followers exclude others based on differences in practice or for reasons of hatred of dislike they are not following Christ.  This type of division is always wrong.

There is an exclusiveness that is inescapable.  Jesus wants us to be his exclusively.  He went to extreme lengths to make this possible.  I know it is not popular to talk about our sin and fallen nature.  The exclusive nature of my faith teaches that we are all in need of redemption.  That is not being said as an attack on anyone but as an inclusive shared common condition of man.  When we rejected God and his standards we created our lostness.  He made us and then bought us back when he lost us. 

What Jesus wants is everyone, everywhere, at every moment.  He wants this for our good and out of love for us.  As I prepare for Advent I must remember that I am not better than anyone. I must be constantly aware that this is a shared and individual journey all at once.  There is no one on the journey toward God that does not matter.

I must assure that I prepare my heart to see everyone where they are in the moment.  I must also see what Christ wishes for them.  He wants me to love and enjoy them as part of his creation.  He wants me to treat everyone with kindness and respect.  I am not required to accept everything that others say are right and good but I am required to love everyone.  I am required to live out what Jesus wants for others.

What does Jesus want?  He wants everyone.  What if Christ followers abandoned the divisions and treated everyone with love, respect, compassion, and kindness?  What if we follow Christ by working toward what he wants?  “And when I am lifted up I will draw all men unto myself.”

Could it Be – Michael Card

In the ebb and flow of living

As we wander through the years

We're told to listen to a voice

We can't here with our ears

They say to live by something

That you can't see with your eyes

Is there really any purpose

To this foolish exercise?

Could it be, You make Your presence known So often by Your absence?

Could it be that questions tell us more Than answers ever do?

Could it be that You would really rather die Than live without us?

Could it be the only answer that means anything Is You?

In our words and in our silence

In our pride and in our shame

To the genius and the scholar

To the foolish and insane

To the ones who care to seek You

To the ones who never will

You are the only answer even still

Could it be, You make Your presence known so often by Your absence?

Could it be that questions tell us more than answers ever do?

Could it be that You would really rather die than live without us?

Could it be the only answer that means anything is You?

It's a question you can't answer

An answer you cannot express

That the gentle Man of Sorrows

Is the source of happiness

You'll never solve the mystery of this magnetic man

For you must believe to understand

Could it be, You make Your presence known so often by Your absence?

Could it be that questions tell us more than answers ever do?

Could it be that You would really rather die than live without us?

Could it be the only answer that means anything is You?

Could it be the only answer that means anything is You?

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."