Modern technology is meant to save us time by fulfilling all the humdrum tasks of the day with ease. But I find it somehow makes demands on me that I would never have demanded of myself in times past.
Responses have to be made in seconds with barely time to think or reflect. If I am occupied in attending meetings, or, dare I say, taking a day off, by that evening there is a sack of emails “looking forward to your earliest response”.
Somehow, with the darkening nights and the relentless march to “Yuletide” celebrations, the urgency appears to be greater. Perhaps that is one of the very human reasons for Advent – a pause, a break, a gap, a change – so that we can use that very urgency to make ready for the Coming of the Son of Man – into our world, into our lives this Christmas. 

“Let us give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1.12)

Allow me to share a poem with you as we enter into Advent and prepare for Christmas.

You are always there in a quiet room

waiting for me to come to you.

This morning in a hilly field

sitting on the corner of a stone cattle trough,

listening to the water tumbling down the hill

into the silent river, watching the crows fly to work

across the sky, why was I surprised to find you there?

Lord, teach me to leave space in my mind

So that you can always be there.

(Alice Taylor, Praying Place)

May you have a spiritually fruitful Advent and a peace-filled Christmas. 

In blessed hope,

+Terry