Bright Spots

In some seasons, certain books or songs come along that are like monkey bars for me - I reach for them over and over again as I make my way across the day. They hold me, somehow supporting not just my weight, but the emotional/spiritual burden of everything I'm carrying, too.  I think of these things as bright spots: bits of light to reach for when there's darkness all around.

Here are three bright spots lighting up my Advent season:

A book: Enuma Okoro's memoir, Reluctant Pilgrim.  She writes long, beautiful, sarcastic, candid, challenging, FULL sentences that poke at me and say, "Remember when you were brave enough to do that?" For example:  "I am a well raised, charming, highly educated young woman who can get even a mute person to tell me her or his entire life story in less than an hour. But that doesn't mean I know about neighborliness and servanthood. It basically says I know how to work a room."  Love it.

A song:  Stand, by Rascal Flatts. I first heard this when a contestant on The Voice performed it.  The lyrics make me tear up because they're so true and I need to be reminded: "Every time you get up & get back in the race, one more small piece of you starts to fall into place."  Amen to that.

And a sermon series:  Are You Stuck? by Jordan Seng. (Scroll down to 11/4/12 for the first one).  It's a series about waiting (and praying and working toward) a breakthrough. Jordan is a man of genuine, delightfully low-key wisdom.  I listened to this series in the car as I drove all over Cambridge this month, and the temptation to try and take notes while driving has been very real.  I resist, of course (If you've driven here you understand how truly stuck - or wrecked - that sort of multitasking would get me). But this is good enough that I'm hoping to rope off an entire afternoon soon and listen again, car in park & pen in hand.

My prayer today: Dear God, thank You for these bright spots. Please send more. Help me to see You in them. And bless us all as as we fumble about hoping to be bright spots for one another.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

What are your bright spots this season?