{"id":2197,"date":"2012-12-06T14:43:48","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T18:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2012-12-06T14:43:48","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T18:43:48","slug":"christmas-is-messy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=2197","title":{"rendered":"Christmas is Messy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Thursday Father!<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas is messy\u2026 Humanity is messy\u2026 Family life is messy…\u00a0 And we get in trouble when we work so hard to make it all perfect.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As I listened to a recording of Father Jim Clifton<\/a> delivering a message on Advent yesterday evening, these simple statements found a nerve\u2026<\/p>\n

And I realized what a powerful, misunderstood truth it really is Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this season of Advent we try to focus on hopeful waiting; anxiously preparing to celebrate that moment of perfection so many years ago.\u00a0 And in that effort, quite often we attempt to put aside, or push down those portions of our lives that remind us of our \u201cmessiness\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cBut it\u2019s Christmas\u2026\u201d<\/em> we tell ourselves\u2026 \u201cWe need to approach that stable with thankfulness and joy, not with turmoil and pain in our hearts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And yet Lord, our need and our brokenness is why<\/span> You came to us that night…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFor God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 John 3:16 (NLT)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You came because you love us Lord;<\/em><\/p>\n

In our brokenness,<\/em><\/p>\n

In the midst of our hurt,<\/em><\/p>\n

And in our frailty.<\/em><\/p>\n

So Father, as I approach Christmas this year; as I make my intentional journey to kneel at the side of that Holy manger, I bring all of myself to You:<\/p>\n

My turmoil,<\/em><\/p>\n

My struggles,<\/em><\/p>\n

And my pain\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

As well as<\/p>\n

My gratefulness,<\/em><\/p>\n

My wonder,<\/em><\/p>\n

And my joy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Help me to embrace the fullness of this season Lord; to make my pilgrimage with an open heart, knowing that You\u2019ve come to receive me\u2026<\/p>\n

In all of my messiness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Thursday Father! \u201cChristmas is messy\u2026 Humanity is messy\u2026 Family life is messy…\u00a0 And we get in trouble when we work so hard to make it all perfect.\u201d As I listened to a recording of Father Jim Clifton delivering a message on Advent yesterday evening, these simple statements found a nerve\u2026 And I […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2957,2204,321,266,2959,2961,2962,2966,2964,2960,2965,269,2818,2392,2963,2958,2203],"class_list":["post-2197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-advent","tag-birth-of-our-savior","tag-christ","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-is-messy","tag-family-life-is-messy","tag-father-jim-clifton","tag-holy-manger","tag-hopeful-waiting","tag-humanity-is-messy","tag-intentional-journey","tag-jesus","tag-joyful-and-open-heart","tag-manger","tag-misunderstood-truth","tag-pilgrimage","tag-season-of-advent"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Brush-and-Dustpan-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-zr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2199,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions\/2199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}