by Pastor Douglas Brauner

T’is The Season for Confusion

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Then he received the highest position in heaven, the one next to the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:2 God’s Word to the Nations

In my last week in the office at Holy Cross, before I started my sabbatical, the staff threw a party to celebrate my time with them. At this party they gave me a t-shirt of Dug, you know, the dog in the movie, Up. It reads, “My name is Dug, I just met you and…SQUIRREL!” Yes, that is a great description of my life…all of my life.

I’m easily distracted.

How about those Ducks hiring Dan Lanning as their new head football coach?

Did you see the color on that bird?

I think that was a moose I saw.

It’s hard for me to stay on the “yellow line” and not get distracted by what’s painted on the walls. I’m so easily distracted that I might forget why I was walking through this tunnel in the first place.

It’s easy to get distracted this time of year. It’s easy to get caught up in the decorations, parties, and gifts that we forget that Christ is still in Christmas and always will be.

The focus this time of year is not only on the baby, but when that baby in full glory will return. Advent reminds us that we are waiting, waiting for that day when the one who died and rose for us will return and all humans will see him. The dead will be raised. Sin and death will be no more. All tears will be wiped away.

Even in our squirrel moments may we have the focus that Jesus had and remain on the “yellow line” to the end.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado