In the film "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" the Judi Dench character says one of my favorite things ever: "All we know about the future is that it will be different. But, perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same." This sermon reminds me of that. Thank you.
" ... but what I feel I really suffer from is a disease called First Thought Wrong."
Good Lord, I read that and saw myself. My story is worn and old and familiar, and it's condemning and sad and hopeless, and here we are in Advent, and Nadia blows my doors off once again, suggesting that the gift of life through Christ just might show me another way, and not in an abstract sense, but that my story might be turned upside down because that's just how God works. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
In August, I started with Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA). I have faced the world with courage, and I have made a complete boorach, or bobbins, of my life. Each meeting I go to I say I am an adult child, and that I can't change others but I might change me. And I am working it.
A wonderfully powerful and joyous sermon about the power of laying aside the who we have been to embrace the joy of who we are becoming. I will read this again and again. Thank you.
Thank You Nadia. Contrasting Zechariah's and the Blessed Mother's response to Gabriel, I too am definitely more in the Zechariah camp - "careful what you pray for". And yet, still I (or the Christ in me) prays everyday for an understanding of God's will for me and the power to carry that out. Being made temporarily mute may be one of the most important gifts God could bestow on me.
Love this, thank you Nadia for delivering the word completely through the letterbox of our hearts and not just half way. You are never afraid to write the address in big bold this is for you words. Your sermons shout that God is in charge and we can collapse into that love to be held, fed and nurtured back to life. Xx
For most of my adult life I have been “Kate who has an eating disorder.” This summer and fall I’ve been in intensive treatment and feel like the ED is on its way out. But what does that leave me? Who am I and what is my life without it? Well, in the quiet of Advent I pray for what is possible. And I will keep trying to keep my old story out of the new. Thank you, Nadia!
Thank you. I struggle with the details of Advent and try to make connections with my life to no avail. Maybe silence is my answer this year. Me and Zechariah
Nadia, this sermon really touched me. I read it out loud in my living room. It sounds beautiful to my ears. The idea that no matter what age I am I don’t have to say my story is etched in stone. Wow! What a beautiful revelation. It’s full of optimism in your own way one I can get behind. Thank-you for being honest to yourself and to your readers and me who reads or listens to your work regularly.
I’ve often wished I could lose my voice and not have to speak it’s so exhausting. The shape of this sermon, I thought I knew where it was going but I forgot that you always surprise me
I think our stories about ourselves are tied to our I-ness, the degree to which we think we’re the same as the stories we pick. The more my sense of I-ness has relaxed the more fluid the stories have become. We pick our identity from all the different things that shaped us and we find stories that reinforce that.
Thank you for encouraging us to imagine what our story can be if we embrace the possibilities through prayer and speaking to ourselves "I am a child of God." I put limits upon myself thinking that's the way it is and the way it aughta be.
"Advent is an invitation to be prophets of a different story." Thank you.
In the film "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" the Judi Dench character says one of my favorite things ever: "All we know about the future is that it will be different. But, perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same." This sermon reminds me of that. Thank you.
My husband is going through transformations. I bring up stuff he has done in the past waaay too much. Silence is what I need and he needs!
" ... but what I feel I really suffer from is a disease called First Thought Wrong."
Good Lord, I read that and saw myself. My story is worn and old and familiar, and it's condemning and sad and hopeless, and here we are in Advent, and Nadia blows my doors off once again, suggesting that the gift of life through Christ just might show me another way, and not in an abstract sense, but that my story might be turned upside down because that's just how God works. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
In August, I started with Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA). I have faced the world with courage, and I have made a complete boorach, or bobbins, of my life. Each meeting I go to I say I am an adult child, and that I can't change others but I might change me. And I am working it.
A wonderfully powerful and joyous sermon about the power of laying aside the who we have been to embrace the joy of who we are becoming. I will read this again and again. Thank you.
Thank You Nadia. Contrasting Zechariah's and the Blessed Mother's response to Gabriel, I too am definitely more in the Zechariah camp - "careful what you pray for". And yet, still I (or the Christ in me) prays everyday for an understanding of God's will for me and the power to carry that out. Being made temporarily mute may be one of the most important gifts God could bestow on me.
Lovely. I’m in the midst of a changing story. Trying to shut up. ❤️
Love this, thank you Nadia for delivering the word completely through the letterbox of our hearts and not just half way. You are never afraid to write the address in big bold this is for you words. Your sermons shout that God is in charge and we can collapse into that love to be held, fed and nurtured back to life. Xx
Thank you for sending us such wonderful sermons. They are real and
I love to treat myself to reading them. You are my inspiration as I am going through all the
Trauma of the division of
The
Methodist church. I rejoice in the Good News you share.
Rev Pamela
For most of my adult life I have been “Kate who has an eating disorder.” This summer and fall I’ve been in intensive treatment and feel like the ED is on its way out. But what does that leave me? Who am I and what is my life without it? Well, in the quiet of Advent I pray for what is possible. And I will keep trying to keep my old story out of the new. Thank you, Nadia!
nice to meet you, just Kate.
Thank you. I struggle with the details of Advent and try to make connections with my life to no avail. Maybe silence is my answer this year. Me and Zechariah
Nadia, this sermon really touched me. I read it out loud in my living room. It sounds beautiful to my ears. The idea that no matter what age I am I don’t have to say my story is etched in stone. Wow! What a beautiful revelation. It’s full of optimism in your own way one I can get behind. Thank-you for being honest to yourself and to your readers and me who reads or listens to your work regularly.
thank you for offering me a “subversively beautiful story” . as you told the story of Zechariah.
i could argue just like he did... even with Gabriel !
you suggest that we can remain silent.
G-d called us “stiff necked people”. why is it so hard for us to accept G-d’s dominion.
maybe your prayer for us to FINALLY bow our heads in submission to His will in silence,will be the gift we receive this season.
thank you for offering this option...can i just be still and watch?
this could be the year we do.
I’ve often wished I could lose my voice and not have to speak it’s so exhausting. The shape of this sermon, I thought I knew where it was going but I forgot that you always surprise me
I think our stories about ourselves are tied to our I-ness, the degree to which we think we’re the same as the stories we pick. The more my sense of I-ness has relaxed the more fluid the stories have become. We pick our identity from all the different things that shaped us and we find stories that reinforce that.
Thank you for encouraging us to imagine what our story can be if we embrace the possibilities through prayer and speaking to ourselves "I am a child of God." I put limits upon myself thinking that's the way it is and the way it aughta be.
"Advent is an invitation to be prophets of a different story." Thank you.