Preparation

As we’ve looked at recently, Advent is a time of preparation. We prepare for all sorts of events. For me, a time of preparation is at an end. Part of our chemistry building is completing a renovation, and I am privileged to move my teaching labs to some of the new space.

We move today, so the last week has been a lot of packing, moving small things, and getting ready for an army of movers to transport everything up two floors. Essentially, everything is ready, and all that remains is to direct the troops…

Adventageous

Today was the first Sunday in Advent, which is the period defined by the four Sundays before Christmas. While the Advent season itself is not prescribed by Scripture, the concept is very much so. Advent is a time for preparing ourselves for the upcoming celebration of Christ’s birth and all it represents.

Throughout Scripture and life there are times of preparation dictated for momentous events. In Scripture, there are only two days in the week that are given names, the Sabbath, and the Day of Preparation, which is the day before the Sabbath where the people were to make all necessary preparations for food and chores that would not be done on the Sabbath.

Prayer for Fall Term

Father,

As we prepare for a new year of classes,

We ask you to prepare our hearts,

And attitudes

To love our students, all of them;

To teach them with humility and authority;

To see their situations with your eyes and wisdom

That we may fairly treat them

With Justice and Mercy properly mixed;

That we may clearly communicate

Both content and expectation.

May we teach wisdom and discernment

More than facts and figures.

May we flee from indoctrination

Showing them how to think rather than what.

Grant us the energy to do all we can,

The ability to say “no,”

And the grace to be peacemakers in disputes.

May our students come eager

And either maintain or regain

Their sense of wonder.

Shield them from the things that

Distract and derail their progress.

May they teach us as well,

That we not become hardened with the familiarity of our subject.

Fill us with your Spirit, the Counselor.

May we clearly transmit the wisdom, power, love and truth

Of the Gospel

Through our example and teaching,

Such that we earn their desire

To ask the source of our light.

May our colleagues and students both

Smell the aroma of salvation around us

And turn from death to life.

And finally, grant us rest at the end of term,

That we may be renewed for the next.

Amen

SDG