Christopher Campbell

I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
   I killed your young men with the sword;
I carried away your horses;
   and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,
          says the Lord.

Beloved in the body of Christ,

As we progress through this dark time of Advent I find myself at an impasse. Part of me wants to be jovial and bright—what with Christmas around the corner. Yet the other part of me struggles with the veil of mortality.

Today's reading from Peter asks us a question that seems to align with this problem:

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

We live lives which, even for the most famous people in history, amount to nothing. Yet, for some reason we conceptualize ourselves as the center of mass in the universe.

In my soul, I know that I am but dust, and to such I will return. Why, then, do I insist on making some sort of impact, as if I were an ant stomping his foot in a crater and believing he moved the world?

Perhaps this is my attempt to understand the answer Peter gives to his question: What sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness?

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish;

I find it is in this season of Advent, this season of penitence, that we are meant to look forward to the coming of our salvation, yet this hope should always be mixed with an understanding of what this new beginning means: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

As such, while I wait for the coming of the new heaven and new earth, I know my sight should not be set only on the joys of this world; nor on its pains. Instead I must look toward the kingdom of God! I must live now as I would live in God's eternity. For it is assured that, as I live, I will be judged. And, as such, within whom I live now, I will live eternally. In whom shall your eternity be?

...grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

May you live in Truth, Peace, and Love,
—Chris Campbell