I stand before you today saying: this is a new day. A Turning Point. I’m ready to do my part in making some changes to live a little differently. Steadier and readier than ever. Prepared. Because I’m channeling Anna. I’m fasting and I’m praying and I’m staying in the Temple, praising God. So that whenever God shows up? I won’t be distracted.

When God chose that manger, in a crowded home, God was keeping the Holy Family safe. No one would look for a king there.

Heaven moves first in the margins. Angels skip the courts and councils of kings, choosing instead to go straight to shepherds working the night shift. They’re ordinary people. Watching and waiting through the night for the light to shine.

Please, beloved, don’t miss God’s strategy of protection. This is how God moves.

Beloved in Christ, on this holy night, we mark our time together in the stillness that gives us the distinct experience of wrapping ourselves in God's glory.

As you reflect on the Christmas story and your own experience of it this year, I ask, what are you facing that feels impossible or unthinkable? Where are your angels? Think honestly - have you already heard from the angel you need? Have they already spoken? Or are you still waiting?

He entered this world as a little babe, no crib for a bed. But with a name the world would learn so that his followers to come would always, always have a name close enough to be spoken to.

Say his name. Jesus!

Readiness is what God reveals only after you have lived through the gap. Readiness rises from the wisdom you gain in the nights when answers do not come. Readiness appears when the fear settles and the truth finally speaks.

Preparation is the gift God placed in you before the trial.

Readiness is the gift God places in you after you endure it.

#FaithInTheWaiting #SpiritAtWork #AnointedAndAble #PreparationAndPromise

The arms that carried Jesus through death itself carry us still. And when the bridge looks too wide to cross, God holds us steady until we can carry each other.

Say this, beloved, like you believe it:

God can take it all.

God’s heart is on infinite swivel.

I cross no bridge alone.