My Advent Call Part II: Living Mercifully

I'm often found a fool.  Living in unrest toward my fellow man, robbed of joy.  This is not the tumultuous inner unrest, rather an outer, directional, personal unrest.  I speak ill toward, and carry mal toward my fellow man.  Only fools run from joy.  Many of my closest friends have heard me utter cynical words toward chapel speakers, or more often worship leaders that do not seem to get the call of Christ.  I am being made aware that this is a reflection of my heart.  The Scriptures implore us saying: "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."  Mine is a dirty heart indeed!  


There is a sense in which living mercifully is funded by Advent.  When we learn to live in the rhythms of God's grace and to seek after joy, hope, and peace, we begin to learn the heart of God.  I felt led the other night to begin to live mercifully toward my fellow man.  To begin to have a favorable heart toward the Saints especially.  Beyond the entry level benefit of peace, lies a deeper call, beyond the peace, beyond the mercy.

In the midst of Advent I hear the cry of my Savior.  It is not the mature tears that I invision in His eyes as he prays the High Priestly Prayer over us in John 17, "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one," ever mindful of the Schism and conflict that await in His Church.  This is the cry of an infant.  Infants can sense unrest in a room.  They feel their parent's moving toward conflict, or an all too argumentative uncle stirring up controversy.  They begin to cry out of a longing for peace.  I know that we are in the week of joy and "rejoicing," yet I cannot help but wonder if there is a logical progression to the Advent wreath...

Must peace come before joy?


So I fledge on.  Seeking after peace in my own life.  The Shalom of Yahweh.  I must find places, times, and moments where peace can be found, therein my joy.  The smile of an infant implores me to this.  To the joy found in the heart of peace.  Mine is a venture not of obligation, but of joy.  Joy to us Saints!  A child is born in Bethlehem!  He will be a beacon of hope in dark places.  Joy to us Saints!  A Child is born in Israel!  He will be a pillar of righteousness!  Joy to us Saints!  A Child is born into the world!  And on his shoulders is Salvation.  Salvation, in the smile of a Child.  Joy in the smile of a Child.  Joy.