Plans and Humility - The somewhat different Advent Calender XIII ...

Thursday, Dec 13, 2012. Advent time as a preparation for Christmas. It is a hectic time which puts a lot of pressure on our time planning, with Christmas shopping, with various Christmas parties and all the business activities which need to be carried out before the end of the year holiday.

Man plans, but thinks can come differently …

But not all plans work out as planned. This morning, for a 25min journey I needed more than an hour to get to my office (something I have to do 4 times a day currently, since I take care of the kids over lunch). That does not fit to the time pressure which is there, and my enthusiasm to get my things done got clearly damped. But of course, there are much more difficult things.

Life does not always work out as planned. Some of use have to experience tragic losses, where loved ones are taken away from us suddenly, in the middle of their active life. One day, everything seems fine, and we plan the next weeks and years. The next day, it is all gone, and we find ourselves sitting at the death bed in a hospital. Life is more than the plans, we make.

I am always struggling with, and trying to reach a mode of adequate humility with respect to the possibilities and limitations of life. We all know that our power to control our life and the life of our families and friends is much smaller than we often think! We do not have the power over life and death. We do not have the power to make our work succeed. It is a gift, if it works, and if we can exercise power or influence at some points.

Everything with him …

One key insight which I have learned so far is that we need to live with him, with the Lord. He has the power over life and death. With him, in him, everything is possible, and there is a perspective which is much beyond all our natural limits. He wanted to give us a hope beyond death, in Jesus, and he did!

It is God's education, when he puts limits into our life. I take it as his education, when we have times in our life where we need to wait, where we do not seem to make progress. But I also have seen that he can resolve many difficulties, and that progress is possible, when the time has come.

He invites us to be with him in life and death. He invites us to trust him, he will call us into life as he called Jesus, after he died at the cross. He has the power to help, with a help which is never too late, even in death. Advent is also a time, where we need to turn to him with all we do, and give it into his hands! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts