Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 4:23
Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down...
Luke 21:34a
By Rev. Canon Val Kenyon
Have you ever heard the expression, "Well begun is half done", meaning that if you get off to a good start in any endeavor, your chances of success are greatly improved?
The first time I heard this expression it was from the lips of the “practically perfect in every way”, Mary Poppins, in Disney’s film of the same name. While an odd cultural and cinematic reference to make as we begin a new liturgical year, it came to mind as I considered the value of “beginnings”, a timely topic as we enter Advent.
We seem to value auspicious beginnings, that is, beginnings that contain within them something that suggests/symbolizes that future success is likely - for example, a festive dinner on New Year’s Day that sets the tone for a year of abundance. Have you ever noticed the attention that gets paid to our clothes on the first day of school or as we begin a new job? Then there is the practice of new shoes for a treasurer who is delivering a budget. Beginnings matter. Beginnings are important to us. As our calendar rolls into December, we stand at the beginning of a new church year.
Many of our readings in Advent are challenging, offering us quite graphic and cataclysmic descriptions of difficult times feeling even harsher in contrast to the perky “Jingle Bell” tunes and Christmas movies that whirl around us. Yet in the midst of all of this Jesus offers both encouragements to pay attention to what is happening all around while at the same time staying attuned to the condition of our hearts. It is out of our hearts that courage and enthusiasm flow, with the heart being the innermost, central part of our being.
So, how are our hearts as we launch into Advent 2024? Are they expectant, joyous, peaceful, or weighed down, burdened, restricted in some way? Perhaps a little of each, if you are like most. Life can knock us about somewhat. Yet, no matter from where we are starting, the state of our hearts and how to attend to their health seems like a good question to take with us into this new season.
On these first, fresh days of Advent, as we again sing our songs and light our candles, preparing for the celebration of Jesus first coming to us, we offer our hearts anew to God and to the work of God’s kingdom in our midst.
We do this, not because we have the answers to all of our questions or our hearts are in a state of perfect calm, but we freshly commit our hearts to God because it is in the gift of this anticipated Christ Child where our hearts will ultimately find their rest. And in the end, surely that is as auspicious a beginning as one could ever hope for.
With every blessing of the season, from your Education for Ministry Team within Huron, Libi Clifford the Diocese of Huron EfM Coordinator and myself, Val Kenyon at EFM@huron.anglican.ca
Rev. Canon Dr. Val Kenyon is EFM Animator in Huron.