Why I Need Advent

Yesterday one of my wonderful roommates sent me a link to the blog Six Year Med, and I've been reading the back articles. I like finding out what makes people tick, and Danielle is an excellent writer.

Tonight I found this post, Evidence of Things Unseen.

It was a good reminder. Sometimes we run from responsibility that we should have shouldered. But sometimes we carry it too long, carry what never should have been ours originally.

Jars of Clay:

All of those nights
Spend alone in the darkness of your mind
Give it up
Let it go
These are things you were never meant to shoulder...

Conversation with a sobbing friend:

"This was never your choice to make. You have been faithful much..."

"I should be the one paying the prices."

Because we're prideful and we want to carry the world on our shoulders and be the savior.

I know, because that's me.

The good thing is, I'm not the world's savior.

He is.

It's good to be reminded from time to time that it's not my responsibility to save the world. Rather, to be faithful.

Tim Keller's book Counterfeit Gods does an excellent job of issuing this reminder again. He writes,

There is legitimate guilt that is removed through repentance and restitution, and then there is irremediable guilt. When people say, "I know God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself," they mean that they have failed an idol, whose approval is more important to them then God's.

It sounds silly, and I'd love to be able to say, "No, my identity is fully rooted in Christ, and I only rely on what God says about me to know who I am." But I don't. Because I'm prideful, and it's a lot more in keeping with what I'd like to think about how the world depends on me.

But I need to know that it doesn't. Because it's weight that I cannot carry, weight that only a Savior who is God can, and only a Savior who is man can understand how it breaks you.

That's why I need Advent, because I need Christmas, because I need Him to be born and live and die and be my great High Priest.