Daily Worship

Getting going!

Jock Stein November 30, 2025 3 2
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Romans 13: 11-14 (NIVUK)

11 And do this, understanding the present time: the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Sometimes a break, a time of retreat is legitimate and necessary (not least on a Sunday as today) – but there are also times when we need to take busyness on the chin, and seek the Lord in the midst of the demands of the season. I wrote a poem about that in a recent book:*
 

Advent Thoughts


I thought to wait it out, this Advent,
let the busyness pass by, enjoy
the calm of age, an empty stage, content
to make the space my private toy.


But soon I knew I had to let it in,
do face to face instead of watching Zoom,
eye Jesus as my coming next of kin,
let others share my waiting room.


For time runs into everyone’s affairs,
reset upon the road to Bethlehem,
when God prepared to take our human cares,
to wear our clothes, and model them.

 

A Prayer:  

 

Lord Jesus, you were not too busy with heavenly matters to take time to grow in a human womb – our time, Mary’s womb. Help us this Advent season to make room for your concerns, your coming.  And in words based on today’s passage in the King James version:
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

 

* Temple Garden: Poems of Faith and Curiosity (Wipf and Stock)