Joshua Minden (Host) (00:13):

Hi! Welcome to Stories and Other Things Holy, and welcome to the second week of our four-part Advent Reflection Series. We are now officially in the season of Advent, a time, often thought of for preparation and anticipation, but can also be a time that reminds us to pay attention to the incarnation and welcome the incarnation. Already in our world. For many of us, the holiday season can be just as much a time of anxiety, complexity, and heartache as it is a time for Thanksgiving and celebration. So this week our principal storyteller, Dr. Terry Nelson Johnson, shares a story that in invites us to grapple with how invested God is in being with us in our lives. These four episodes of our Advent series are intentionally shorter, hopefully allowing you more time to ponder the radical gift of love that you are being invited to Welcome in. Terry and I hope these story reflections provide comfort in the midst of the messes of life. Now, let's dive in to Stories and Other Things Holy.

Terry Nelson-Johnson (Principal Storyteller) (01:31):

Stories and Other Things Holy. Advent Baby! It is the time to tell stories, and I am so grateful to be able to tell this one. I'm in the balcony at Old St. Pat's. Liturgy is being celebrated. We have a visiting priests name is Richard Fra Amini. Some of you may know him. He's a fiery little Italian dude. I really like him, a lot of energy, and he does this thing on advent. He's like, what's advent? He says, advent is God's declaration of God's intention to join us irrevocably in our chaos. And one of the things that line taught me was how significant one word can be. If he would've said, join us in our life. I would've met him at the bottom of the stairs and said, thank you. Father was a beautiful homily or whatever, God's declaration of joining us in our chaos, and it just captured my imagination. And for some reason I immediately imagined that I was like, God's uncle sounds crazy, but work with me here. And God was going to send an email communicating his new plan. You know what? I'm coming. I'm going to join you in your chaos. But he hasn't hit send yet. You know how when someone writes an email and then they tell you the email and you are like, no, no, no, no, don't hit send. I wanted to go to God as God's uncle and just put my arm around. I'm like, do not hit send.

(03:07):

Do you have any idea how much chaos, Israel, Gaza, and on and my chaos, weight, retirement, finances, hemorrhoids, whatever. You know what I'm saying? There is a lot of chaos and you want to say God, don't don't, for your sake. It's too much. The image that comes to mind for me is when you were a little kid, you're really, really scared, and you woke up in the middle of the night and there was a nightmare, and you ran into your parents' room. You went to your mom's side probably, and you're like, mom, mom, mom. There's boogieman. Worst case scenario, she sends you to bed like, no, there's not. I looked, looked yesterday. Next case scenario is she walks to your bed with you and she tucks you back in. Kisses you like, okay, looks under the bed, no boogeyman. Third best scenario is she walks you back to your bed. She gets in bed with you just for a little bit, doesn't get under the covers, but I'm, and she comforts you. That's good. Best case scenario, she taps the bed when you come in and welcomes you to just slide in next to her and be held by her.

(04:26):

If we are in relationship with the God who declares God's intention to fully and utterly join us in our chaos, and we believe that, then it produces two, there's two ramifications of that. One is we're not alone, and the second is it's going to be okay. Why is it going to be okay? Because we're not alone and God dwells with us In all of our chaos, we are in relationship with the crazy, crazy God. Somebody described compassion as one's willingness to enter into another's chaos. And this advent, I just pray that God is compassionate and that I allow God to be with me in my chaos and trust that God is with us in our chaos. Advent: treacherous adventure. Stories and Other Things Holy.

Joshua Minden (Host) (05:50):

Thank you for joining us for this advent series of Stories and Other Things Holy. If you find these stories meaningful, we invite you to sign up for our newsletter at StoriesandOtherThingsHoly.com, and gain access to weekly written reflections, prayer prompts, and more. Help others learn about this podcast, we invite you to like the videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Also, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. We look forward to seeing you next week for more Stories and Other Things Holy.