I confess, I wasn’t feeling very hopeful yesterday. The Advent-Christmas season is probably the toughest sacrifice for me as a clergy spouse. I deeply grieve my pre-clergy spouse traditions. And I flail and thrash when the un-reliability of clergy family life threatens whatever thread of new traditions we try to establish.

So I hit my knees in prayer yesterday afternoon, as I’m finding that I seem to talk with God better in this position. After 20 years, I know I will not be delivered FROM the craziness of this season, but I know God can deliver me THROUGH this season. And not just to survive it. I can thrive, and recognize God’s blessings in the craziness. But only when I consecrate myself to God’s ways, not mine.

Not sayin’ I’m great at this. I’m no vision of a bonfire. But prayer lit the tiny candle of HOPE in my darkness yesterday.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways and thoughts are higher than yours.” Isaiah 55:8-9