It is Christmas time in Salt Lake City. The mountains look like constant powdered triangles. Every so often the inversion hits. Salt Lake has an immense amount of smog that gets trapped in the valley that is Salt Lake, and for an afternoon or even a week, you are covered in minor cloud of pollution. It makes it hard to bike. Some people wear masks.
The winter is nice here though. Especially for those of us from Portland. For instance, it can be 18 degrees but the sky is still pitch perfect blue. The sun is like a powerful lion or a noble grandfather who watches us play in the front yard. We are unused to this. We are used to the sun being a sketchy uncle, who may or may not show up on Christmas Eve, and he may or may not bring a woman, and he may or may not be under the substance of something. We, from Portland, appreciate blue skies, and the consistency to with which they happen.
Three weeks ago we started our regular Sunday services. We even meet in a chapel! It’s the Post Chapel and sits right above campus by the dorms and the hospitals. We have about fifty people coming so far but don’t ask me how I know this. At a staff meeting the other day someone asked if any of us counted and I said I did, but was unsure whether or not I should have. I said that I didn’t want to have to choose between plague and famine (Old Testament King David reference, you know when he takes the census of Israel) and for moment everyone stared at me blankly. Then I said “King David” and they all went “Ohhh.” But someone had to explain it to Josh, he’s only a worship pastor.
At the same time as we started meeting at the chapel, we also started participating in Advent Conspiracy which Rick from Portland started a couple years ago with a couple other friends. The whole idea is this: Spend Less, Give More, Worship Fully, Love All. Most of us understand that Christmas has become vastly divergent from it’s origins and that around this time of year Christmas becomes nearly indistinguishable from any other secular consumer based Holiday, It becomes quite the barrier to us living as a “peculiar” people. The rampant consumerism and anxiety attacks are perhaps not what Christmas is about. And all of us know this. But Advent Conspiracy asks the question, “What if Christmas could still change the world?” What if we spent less on plastic trinkets, gave more of ourselves relationally, spent time together, took the time to actually worship, and with all the money we didn’t spend, gave away to people who needed it?
This year in Salt Lake City we decided to give our money globally to Living Water (clean water wells) and partner with Imago on the wells they were building in Vietnam, and then locally to give to an organization called Holding out Help. This non-profit helps rescue families or individuals who are looking for a way to leave fundamental Polygamous communities here in Utah. Many times these people are literally in bondage, held against their will either psychologically or emotionally. Holding out Help is there to offer assistance and sets these families (often young teenage boys) with mentor families in Utah who are there to help counsel and transition from a Polygamous lifestyle to what we know as normal society.
One of the main ideas about Advent I tried to focus on this year was space. Creating space to meditate and await the coming of Christ, rather than making myself unbearably busy. I was doing my best to slow down, think about the hope of Christ, get my mind into the rhythm of advent, etc. when I nearly gave up hope altogether. I finished up my last final on Monday and was looking forward to a week off. Unfortunately I realized that though I was done with school, I still had about a hundred and fifty other things to do. The whole week was slammed, and on the days I did give myself some space, I realized how exhausted I was from hitting it so hard this semester. Full time school, part time work and part time internship, girlfriend, and living in a house with seven guys will do that to you.
Also, I was pretty sure I had to break up with the girl I was dating.This is never fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment