§ This is a season in which we may become most
aware of the futility of any attempt to stop time, to
prevent the ebb in the fullness of the flow.  Winters
lie before and behind us, whether we will them to
or not.  ...

§ The times of Advent in our lives are those times
when we wait in the darkness, when we are void
of feeling and void of understanding.  There are
times when there is only the waiting.  ...

§ In a season of celebration we are struck with the
poignant realization of how many lives around us
are far from being able to celebrate.  Many of us
are in difficult and trying times, times of darkness,
while around us everyone seems to be well off
and happy.

§ Each of us now or later is troubled by anxiety, fear,
and doubt.  We are tempted by those religions and
teachings which promise us tranquility, the stilling of
our fears, and certainty beyond doubt.  But let us look
not for someone or some faith that will save us from
ourselves.  ...  let us see the real as it is, in all its joys
and sorrows, its glory and its depravity, and move in
ways which help and heal ourselves and others.

§ We are surprised and shocked by the dark visions
and impulses which sometimes arise within us.  We
are threatened by what we feel as forces of evil and
disharmony around us.  It is not easy to be reconciled
to the dark side of ourselves.

...  Our task is to bring forth the light of understanding,
reason, and resolve, so that we can see what threatens
us and follow the path to wholeness.  May we know
that within each of us is a source of strength and light
which can restore us, if we open ourselves to it.

§ ... How are we able to believe in life?  Learning
itself does not confer zest in living or faith in life;
there are multitudes of learned lost souls.  Even
health by itself does not confer zest in living ...  So
we come back to the question again:  how are we
able to believe in life?

§ ... The problem of being able to believe in life has
always been the problem of not letting death have
power over us, as we get older this problem can
become more acute, if we have not found some way
to deal with it.

§ To be a stoic is to decide to live within the shadow
of death, to bear what has to be borne, and to do what
has to be done, but without a fundamental zest or faith
in life.  It is to live without hope, unless it is merely the
hope that the shadow will delay its further descent.
Stoicism is one of our options.

§ The Christian answer is that it is possible to live out-
side the shadow of death in this life, but it requires a
leap of faith.  The Greek word for faith in the new Testa-
ment is also the word for trust; Christianity is saying that
we must make a personal leap of trust into life.  Whether
it is through Christianity or some other route, there is no
way except by a leap of trust, and we learn that from
other human beings.  Trust in life is passed from one
human being to another:  I cannot show you my faith by
my words, but by my life.  ...

§ There are regular conditions of human experience we
have to struggle with which tell us that things are hopeless,
and a voice inside us says time and again, "What's the use?"
What each of us must have, in order to sustain ourselves
against a world which urges us to hopelessness, is faith.
We must have a faith of some form.  That faith may be dif-
ferent for each of us, and it may not be faith in any traditional
religious form.  It may be Christian or non-Christian, theist or
non-theist, but whatever form that faith takes, it must be an
affirmation against the darkness and experiences of defeat,
an affirmation that somehow our life has meaning when we
act morally.

§ We cannot expect to eliminate fear or anxiety, but we can
remove the power of that fear to destroy our lives.  It is, for
example, an essential part of the human condition that we are
anxious about death, and if we insist on trying to avoid that
anxiety, we shall become captive of it.  It is only when we
acknowledge that, yes, we are afraid of dying, that we are
able to live fully.  ...

§ We must burrow deeply for the quality of life which makes
the rest of life worthwhile.  We have buried our religious
spirit deep within ourselves, and we are going to have to
burrow down and bring it back out.  Despite all we may have
done to bury what is best within ourselves, that spirit is still
there if we are willing to go after it amid the distractions of
our busy world.  ...