Tracy's Blog

" Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour ." (Matthew 24:44) This is how the Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent (which was today) ends.   The words that stand out for me are "must be ready".  We spend so much time focusing on "getting ready for Christmas" that I think it is important that we are reminded in the Advent Season to be ready for Jesus when He returns.  Now, getting ready for Christmas, and by that I mean shopping, baking, planning events, wrapping gifts, and cleaning, is very important.  Personally, I hope to get all those things done before December 25th!   But what does it mean to be ready for the Son of Man's return? Right now I am focused on the verb "be".  Now my problem is that I don't really remember much about English grammar from high school so I can't rattle off what kind of verb "be" is.  What I am aware of, however, is that it implies a state. ...

Where are my keys?  Not this again! (See my post on Monday, April 25, 201 6.)  These are the thoughts I was having awhile back when I couldn't find my keys.  The clock was ticking as it was time to go to school and my frustration with myself was rising.  I think I may have prayed but don't exactly remember.  Here what I do remember: After a few minutes of searching, I looked down and realized I was holding my purse.  Inside it were my keys!!  "Ah," I thought, "isn't that similar to us with our identity and value.  We look everywhere for it when we've actually had it in our possession in Christ all along."  Let me explain. Many of us spend a lot of time and energy searching for meaning and significance in our lives.  We look to other people's opinions of us, our list of accomplishments, or our bank accounts to give us a sense of importance or security.  Sometimes we find the search too painful and turn to habits to comfort, numb, o...