Devotion on Romans 13:11-14

I invite you to read Romans 13:11-14 first.

Although the apostle Paul wrote this passage long ago, it perfectly describes the challenge for this season. Day-to-day obligations increase as Christmas nears and people think about the entertaining, shopping, decorating and duties that have come to define a perfect Christmas. Time is so precious. Yet, we can be so asleep to the possibilities of each moment. We so often waste time on things that distract us from becoming the best person we can become. We wonder what has happened to our time. We can do one trivial thing after another and wonder what we did with our time. We can quickly become angry with time. We have so little of it. We sense that we need to do something important with it. Yet, we keep sleeping through it.
It is time to wake from sleep and get to work — as a force for good in the world.
The good news of Christmas is that God intercedes in human affairs to provide something life giving, real, and lasting. Far from the temporal satisfaction humans get from acquiring goods, God’s incredible love is dwelling among us. We are receiving a gift beyond anything conceived by humanity and marketed on store shelves.
We need to spend more time reflecting upon the things that matter most to us. We might consider family and some friends. We might consider doing well with a career or job. Yet, we will miss out on the wholeness of life that God wants to bring to our lives if we do not consider our relationship with God. Developing this relationship means, in part, putting aside a way of life that distracts us from being the person God wants us to be. It also means turning to Christ, allowing Christ to form us into the persons he wants us to be. If we turn to Christ in this way, we will also wake up to the possibilities of love all around us.
If we truly want a life-giving Christmas, drawing closer to God needs to take priority over any material desire on this year’s wish list. For week one of Advent, we focus on living into eternal hope, carrying that hope for others, knowing that no matter what we go through, we are never alone. God will break through our circumstances and shed light. Our focus in the first week of Advent should be to put one's Christmas list in perspective, seeking God first.
Little more needs to be added; except that one wonders what the church would be like if it really believed the nearness of the Parousia.