For we live in a stormy and turbulent world seeking to disrupt what’s sacred in what’s built through and by God’s Word. All of us bring the inner antagonist with us into whatever community we join. But we can be certain that God’s overwhelming grace and promises are far more powerful and compelling than what maladies we bring in with us. And his Word is more indelibly carved into our Father’s records of us than any mistakes we’ve made by the virtue of Jesus’ perfect righteousness. Trusting in his unfailing promises, we hammer in one nail at a time.

Because Advent is not a season where we suppress the sad stories. But we let them all hang out. For it’s into this kind of world that Jesus committed himself into. He was born into the bloody mess of a manger and into the story of scandal in the virgin birth. Jesus knows about all that’s broken and messy within and around you. And he invites us that we let one another know as well.

Because at the heart of it, we all nurse wounds and carry trauma living in a world absent from what the Bible calls Shalom (true peace and flourishing). And when I experience something real, something that strikes a nerve, I’ve come to learn, is that pain has a history that often sets off an automated response. But sometimes, a story into another world can lull our sensitivities. And in some unique way, these stories spare us from nudging the purpling bruises on the surface and instead, reach deeper into the heart and soul to peel what’s been masked and taped over with years of self-preservation. We all need healing, and some of us need deep healing. And deep healing, as expressed by Wendell Berry, among others, happens not just with stories but in deep community.

Our commitment is toward grace. Grace for the legalist whose own demands strangle his heart. Grace for the tired parent distracted, neglecting, and scrolling. Grace for the addict desperately looking for a greater power than self-medication. Grace for the single mom overcompensating for burdens she shouldn’t have to shoulder alone. Because while God’s grace is deep, it’s not something we carry — it’s something we fall into. At Christ Our Redeemer, we like to say that we recline into God’s grace and into friendship with Jesus. Not because laziness is the answer, but because in the Story of the Gospel, we aren’t the protagonists. And so, we don’t have to play the main part — that’s left to someone else. And He’s faithful enough to carry the mantle, to carry the cross, to carry our burdens, to carry us to His grace — that same grace we fall into.