November 30, 2025 • 14 mins
The lights are up and the carols are back, but the readings turn us toward floods, thieves in the night, and the unsettling image of two women at work, only one “taken.” That tension is exactly where our conversation begins. We move from the warmth of seasonal nostalgia into a Texas thunderstorm that rattled the house, cut the power, and revealed what practical readiness looks like when everything shakes at once. Then we trace that same instinct into the life of the soul: noticing the signs, taking the next right step, and refusing to sleep through the moment when love needs us awake.
From there, we share a scene from summer camp—a quiet circle, a heavy heart, and a reluctant nudge to speak. No big plan, no perfect script, just presence that made space for healing. That story becomes a lens for Advent, where readiness is not fear or prediction but availability. We explore how ordinary routines can become thresholds for grace and how the “two women grinding grain” may be less about timelines and more about recognition. Two people, same task; only one senses the invitation and moves with it.
Across Pastor Darren's message this week we offer simple practices to train the heart: place yourself where grace passes by, build micro-moments of prayerful attention, and act on small nudges quickly. We name the distractions that keep us dull and the habits that sharpen our sight. By the end, Christmas is no longer a countdown to manage but a presence to meet—here, in kitchens and sidewalks and late-night living rooms, where storms still rumble and quiet mercies break in. If this resonates, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review with the sign you’re watching for this week. Your story might be the nudge someone else needs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Darren (00:00):
Well, are we ready for the season now?
We got Thanksgiving done.
Are you ready?
Right.
Oh, it's exciting.
You know, Home Depot can finallyput up all their Christmas
stuff.
I know they've been waiting.
Right?
We can start playing Christmasmusic.
I know everybody's been holdingoff.
(00:20):
You know, but it is interesting.
We get into this season with somuch levity and so much
lightness and all those songsthat we enjoy, the foods we
enjoy, the presents and the giftgiving.
And it's such a great season.
And then we get to the Christiancalendar, and all of a sudden we
get Noah and flooding and wipingout the earth.
(00:46):
Right?
We get two women who aregrinding meal and one gets taken
and one does not get taken.
And then the owner who has toprepare for the thieves who will
come in the night and take hisstuff.
You ready to make a pie now?
(01:07):
Right?
You're ready to go put theChristmas lights up?
This is uh, you know, this ishow we get you ready for
Christmas here in the Christianchurch.
We get you all excited bytalking about the time in
Genesis in which God wiped outmost of everybody on the earth.
Right?
(01:28):
It just sometimes you wonderwhen you're getting into this
Christian calendar.
The story to me actually, itreminds me of a story in my own
life.
For a while, I was appointed outin Texas outside Austin.
And I don't know how many of youhave experience with Texas,
maybe experience even over along period of time where you
(01:49):
were able to experience a Texasrainstorm.
Have you ever been in a Texasrainstorm?
Right?
The kind where the water is justif you happen to be driving, it
feels like your car is gonnacave in.
It's coming down so hard.
When you're uh uh um in yourhouse, you're a little nervous
(02:12):
that it might be too much waterfor your roof to hold everything
up.
Has anybody been in that kind ofsituation, Texas or otherwise,
right?
A few of us, you know what I'mtalking about, right?
So I remember when we wereliving out in Texas, and it was
one night where the kids hadgone to sleep.
Uh, I was actually up in bed aswell.
(02:33):
Brenda wasn't ready to go tobed, I guess.
She was downstairs watching TV,and all of a sudden, on a
thunderstorm night, we get theloudest boom I've ever heard.
Right?
And we're jumping out of bed asquick as I can jump out of bed,
right?
Because you know something'sgoing, something's gone wrong at
(02:56):
this point.
It was that kind of boom.
And the storm was alreadyrunning.
So you're already half ready forwhatever the heck might happen,
right?
Or what might be happening.
Now, for me, I go to bed and youknow, some very uh familiar
clothes will call them.
So I had to get, you know, somepants on and uh get myself ready
(03:16):
to be able to go, what theheck's happening in our house?
Right?
And I come downstairs and we'retalking to each other.
We're like, this is this wascrazy.
And then of course we startsmelling gas, right?
And we're like, okay, well, I'mnot a genius, but I know that's
not good.
Right?
(03:37):
You're smelling gas in yourhouse, and you're thinking this
isn't something we ought to beuh experiencing or believing in.
I I think the power went out,right?
The whole smoke alarms went out.
It was it was quite a night.
Meanwhile, it the rain didn'tstop with that, right?
The rain was continuing to run,but we're thinking we've gotta
(03:57):
get we gotta get out of thishouse, right?
So we go over and neighbors aretwo houses over, right?
But that's a trip when it's hadrain in Texas rain, right?
And there's lightning andthunderstorm and all of this is
going on, and you're but you butyou're thinking, well, it's gas
going on.
We learned a bit about mydaughter as well.
She must have been five or so atthat time, and um, she slept
(04:21):
through it.
So we thought, all right, well,you're safe if things go wrong.
You're gonna sleep throughwhatever the heck happens,
right?
So I end up picking her up, wecarry her across, we get over,
and we kind of huddle overthere.
The gas people show up.
Uh, they did the simplest thing,which it's you know, when you're
a young dad and don't knowsimple things, just turned off
(04:42):
the gas at the oven, and andthat pretty much solved it.
And we were able to go backhome, and you know, and things
started getting back in inorder.
But what we learned was thatlightning had hit the house.
It had actually hit our house,and and uh the only like
recognizable damage turned outto be that gas line that undid
(05:08):
there and and then was blowinginto the house.
But lightning hit our house, andclearly we were not fully ready
for such an experience.
So when I read this passagetoday about Noah being the way
we uh uh teach ourselves aboutbeing prepared, about the women,
(05:32):
some getting taken, some notgetting taken, you know, and the
boss needing to be aware ofthemes, so we better be ready.
I think of that story.
And I'm telling you, when Ithink of that story, my next
thought is boy, am I much moreready for Advent now?
(05:53):
Christmas may as well come todaybecause I'm ready.
I don't know if you feel thesame way reading this passage.
It just takes me into this weirdspace of what are we thinking?
How is this how is this gettingus ready?
How is this inspiring us toprepare for the coming of the
(06:16):
birth of Christ?
You know, that our as Christiansare evidence of of God's true
and deep love for us in theflesh here amongst us.
How does that get us ready forthat?
How does that even teach usabout getting ready?
(06:38):
But after that, I startedthinking and remembering another
story from my past.
Some of you know I did a lot ofyouth ministry uh before I
switched into the big kidministry here with the the big
churches.
You know, I was uh runningaround uh uh with young people,
kind of like Nancy, only I was alittle more sane.
(07:01):
I didn't do the crazy things shedid.
I will never do a mystery night.
This is my commitment.
Yeah, oh, a mystery week.
I'm out.
But I remember as a uh youth uhpastor, youth director in the
(07:22):
churches, we would go and do thesummer camps.
Right.
And for us, we live down nearthe lazy W United Methodist camp
down there.
I think from here you might begoing to Wrightwood.
Probably used to go to Colby,uh, but uh we don't go to Colby
anymore.
If you go to Colby, that roadthat scared you to death, yeah,
(07:42):
we don't drive that roadanymore.
So you don't go to Colbyanymore.
But I was at summer camp, and Iremember being in uh a family
group, which is what we calledthe small discussion groups that
you would be in when you were atsummer camp, right?
An opportunity to processwhatever lessons or theme was
going on, and you'd have usuallytwo leaders and then some kids,
(08:05):
and then it was just it was kindof the group that you got a
little more intimate with, alongwith your cabin over the course
of the week.
And I remember I was paired offwith uh a friend of mine, Vicky
Richards, and uh we felt like wewere a pretty good teaming of
people that we thought we'd doneenough camps and and had good
(08:25):
heart for all of these kids.
But uh secretly, what I knew isI'm kind of a nut.
I'm mostly there to entertaineverybody.
That's my main job when I'm atsummer camp is to make sure it's
fun, not like here.
And we were doing closing night,and on closing night, uh we
(08:49):
recognized that one of our kidswas having a really emotional
time.
It was a weighted time, and hishead was down, and he was kind
of feeling the weight of things.
Some of you who've been on thiskind of experience might have
had a a similar story in yourlife of just that the poignance
of the moment, you know, God'spresence weighing so heavy,
(09:11):
you're just feeling theemotions, and and he's feeling
it.
And my good friend VickyRichards says, Go talk to him.
Go over, he needs somebody rightnow.
And I'm like, who, you know,well, I'm a funny guy.
Am I gonna go talk to him?
(09:32):
What am I bringing to to this tothis party, as it were?
But you don't go against VickyRichards.
So I got up and I went over andI talked to him, and we really
had a good moment.
And I was able to be kind ofhelpful to him.
I like to use the words now inmy life, that I was able to be
(09:52):
God's instrument, be able tospeak the words that God would
have spoken to him, that Jesuswould have spoken to him in a
way that uh there was someinspiration, there was some
comfort, there was some healingthat was able to happen.
I I got to be, I got to be thatthat guy.
I think of that story because II don't necessarily look at uh
(10:18):
at myself in that time and say,you know, I really was uh ready.
I made myself ready.
You know, I I don't know that Icould claim that.
You can hear it in the way Itell the story, right?
Vicky had to goose me along toget over and do that.
So in some ways, I don't knowthat I really felt like uh uh I
(10:42):
was a ready person, but I was inthe right place.
I was where I knew I had seenGod's presence, I had felt God's
strength, I had seen andexperienced opportunities to be
in that that space where I gotto be that love, where I got to
(11:04):
experience that love, where Igot to to to know what it feels
like to be part of what makesthis world a blessing.
A blessing to me, a blessing tothose that I'm able to engage.
I knew enough to get myself tothat camp.
(11:25):
And I wonder if this is a littlebit of what Jesus is trying to
get across with this passage.
We don't always know when theopportunity to be an instrument
of God's love, when theopportunity to get to experience
(11:46):
God's living presence amongstus, with us, we don't know when
that's coming.
It might happen now, it mighthappen later today, it might not
happen for a week.
We don't really know all theways that God is going to be
working through this.
(12:09):
But you know, to be in thatspace where we actually get that
opportunity and to see it comingand to be able to live into it,
I think is what Jesus might bepointing to here.
In this context, I look at thatmetaphor of these two women who
(12:34):
are grinding meal together.
One of them gets taken by Godand one of them does not.
We hear that story and we'rethinking, oh, it's some sort of
rapture kind of thing where onegets to be with God and one gets
to be somewhere else that we alldon't want to be.
(12:54):
But when I look at it throughthis new lens, this lens that
says, you know, God's God'soffering opportunities for us
all the time to have thatexperience, to be that
experience for other people.
And sometimes we're ready forit, and sometimes we're not.
(13:20):
Just like the two women who aregrinding a meal.
So as we enter into this Adventseason, as as we start getting
ready for this coming ChristmasEve in which we we're gonna
celebrate the living presence ofGod in this on this earth, the
(13:41):
evidence of God's deep, deeplove for us.
I'm wondering if we're going tosee the opportunity, see the
signs of what God is doing, ofwhere Christ is real.
Are we gonna see theseopportunities over this season?
(14:03):
Or are we gonna miss it?
Let's hope we see those signsand see those opportunities and
that we're able to live into itand that the birth of Christ
becomes something as meaningfulas it can be for us, life
changing in deep, deep ways.
(14:25):
Amen.
Well, are we ready for the season now?
We got Thanksgiving done.
Are you ready?
Right.
Oh, it's exciting.
You know, Home Depot can finallyput up all their Christmas
stuff.
I know they've been waiting.
Right?
We can start playing Christmasmusic.
I know everybody's been holdingoff.
(00:20):
You know, but it is interesting.
We get into this season with somuch levity and so much
lightness and all those songsthat we enjoy, the foods we
enjoy, the presents and the giftgiving.
And it's such a great season.
And then we get to the Christiancalendar, and all of a sudden we
get Noah and flooding and wipingout the earth.
(00:46):
Right?
We get two women who aregrinding meal and one gets taken
and one does not get taken.
And then the owner who has toprepare for the thieves who will
come in the night and take hisstuff.
You ready to make a pie now?
(01:07):
Right?
You're ready to go put theChristmas lights up?
This is uh, you know, this ishow we get you ready for
Christmas here in the Christianchurch.
We get you all excited bytalking about the time in
Genesis in which God wiped outmost of everybody on the earth.
Right?
(01:28):
It just sometimes you wonderwhen you're getting into this
Christian calendar.
The story to me actually, itreminds me of a story in my own
life.
For a while, I was appointed outin Texas outside Austin.
And I don't know how many of youhave experience with Texas,
maybe experience even over along period of time where you
(01:49):
were able to experience a Texasrainstorm.
Have you ever been in a Texasrainstorm?
Right?
The kind where the water is justif you happen to be driving, it
feels like your car is gonnacave in.
It's coming down so hard.
When you're uh uh um in yourhouse, you're a little nervous
(02:12):
that it might be too much waterfor your roof to hold everything
up.
Has anybody been in that kind ofsituation, Texas or otherwise,
right?
A few of us, you know what I'mtalking about, right?
So I remember when we wereliving out in Texas, and it was
one night where the kids hadgone to sleep.
Uh, I was actually up in bed aswell.
(02:33):
Brenda wasn't ready to go tobed, I guess.
She was downstairs watching TV,and all of a sudden, on a
thunderstorm night, we get theloudest boom I've ever heard.
Right?
And we're jumping out of bed asquick as I can jump out of bed,
right?
Because you know something'sgoing, something's gone wrong at
(02:56):
this point.
It was that kind of boom.
And the storm was alreadyrunning.
So you're already half ready forwhatever the heck might happen,
right?
Or what might be happening.
Now, for me, I go to bed and youknow, some very uh familiar
clothes will call them.
So I had to get, you know, somepants on and uh get myself ready
(03:16):
to be able to go, what theheck's happening in our house?
Right?
And I come downstairs and we'retalking to each other.
We're like, this is this wascrazy.
And then of course we startsmelling gas, right?
And we're like, okay, well, I'mnot a genius, but I know that's
not good.
Right?
(03:37):
You're smelling gas in yourhouse, and you're thinking this
isn't something we ought to beuh experiencing or believing in.
I I think the power went out,right?
The whole smoke alarms went out.
It was it was quite a night.
Meanwhile, it the rain didn'tstop with that, right?
The rain was continuing to run,but we're thinking we've gotta
(03:57):
get we gotta get out of thishouse, right?
So we go over and neighbors aretwo houses over, right?
But that's a trip when it's hadrain in Texas rain, right?
And there's lightning andthunderstorm and all of this is
going on, and you're but you butyou're thinking, well, it's gas
going on.
We learned a bit about mydaughter as well.
She must have been five or so atthat time, and um, she slept
(04:21):
through it.
So we thought, all right, well,you're safe if things go wrong.
You're gonna sleep throughwhatever the heck happens,
right?
So I end up picking her up, wecarry her across, we get over,
and we kind of huddle overthere.
The gas people show up.
Uh, they did the simplest thing,which it's you know, when you're
a young dad and don't knowsimple things, just turned off
(04:42):
the gas at the oven, and andthat pretty much solved it.
And we were able to go backhome, and you know, and things
started getting back in inorder.
But what we learned was thatlightning had hit the house.
It had actually hit our house,and and uh the only like
recognizable damage turned outto be that gas line that undid
(05:08):
there and and then was blowinginto the house.
But lightning hit our house, andclearly we were not fully ready
for such an experience.
So when I read this passagetoday about Noah being the way
we uh uh teach ourselves aboutbeing prepared, about the women,
(05:32):
some getting taken, some notgetting taken, you know, and the
boss needing to be aware ofthemes, so we better be ready.
I think of that story.
And I'm telling you, when Ithink of that story, my next
thought is boy, am I much moreready for Advent now?
(05:53):
Christmas may as well come todaybecause I'm ready.
I don't know if you feel thesame way reading this passage.
It just takes me into this weirdspace of what are we thinking?
How is this how is this gettingus ready?
How is this inspiring us toprepare for the coming of the
(06:16):
birth of Christ?
You know, that our as Christiansare evidence of of God's true
and deep love for us in theflesh here amongst us.
How does that get us ready forthat?
How does that even teach usabout getting ready?
(06:38):
But after that, I startedthinking and remembering another
story from my past.
Some of you know I did a lot ofyouth ministry uh before I
switched into the big kidministry here with the the big
churches.
You know, I was uh runningaround uh uh with young people,
kind of like Nancy, only I was alittle more sane.
(07:01):
I didn't do the crazy things shedid.
I will never do a mystery night.
This is my commitment.
Yeah, oh, a mystery week.
I'm out.
But I remember as a uh youth uhpastor, youth director in the
(07:22):
churches, we would go and do thesummer camps.
Right.
And for us, we live down nearthe lazy W United Methodist camp
down there.
I think from here you might begoing to Wrightwood.
Probably used to go to Colby,uh, but uh we don't go to Colby
anymore.
If you go to Colby, that roadthat scared you to death, yeah,
(07:42):
we don't drive that roadanymore.
So you don't go to Colbyanymore.
But I was at summer camp, and Iremember being in uh a family
group, which is what we calledthe small discussion groups that
you would be in when you were atsummer camp, right?
An opportunity to processwhatever lessons or theme was
going on, and you'd have usuallytwo leaders and then some kids,
(08:05):
and then it was just it was kindof the group that you got a
little more intimate with, alongwith your cabin over the course
of the week.
And I remember I was paired offwith uh a friend of mine, Vicky
Richards, and uh we felt like wewere a pretty good teaming of
people that we thought we'd doneenough camps and and had good
(08:25):
heart for all of these kids.
But uh secretly, what I knew isI'm kind of a nut.
I'm mostly there to entertaineverybody.
That's my main job when I'm atsummer camp is to make sure it's
fun, not like here.
And we were doing closing night,and on closing night, uh we
(08:49):
recognized that one of our kidswas having a really emotional
time.
It was a weighted time, and hishead was down, and he was kind
of feeling the weight of things.
Some of you who've been on thiskind of experience might have
had a a similar story in yourlife of just that the poignance
of the moment, you know, God'spresence weighing so heavy,
(09:11):
you're just feeling theemotions, and and he's feeling
it.
And my good friend VickyRichards says, Go talk to him.
Go over, he needs somebody rightnow.
And I'm like, who, you know,well, I'm a funny guy.
Am I gonna go talk to him?
(09:32):
What am I bringing to to this tothis party, as it were?
But you don't go against VickyRichards.
So I got up and I went over andI talked to him, and we really
had a good moment.
And I was able to be kind ofhelpful to him.
I like to use the words now inmy life, that I was able to be
(09:52):
God's instrument, be able tospeak the words that God would
have spoken to him, that Jesuswould have spoken to him in a
way that uh there was someinspiration, there was some
comfort, there was some healingthat was able to happen.
I I got to be, I got to be thatthat guy.
I think of that story because II don't necessarily look at uh
(10:18):
at myself in that time and say,you know, I really was uh ready.
I made myself ready.
You know, I I don't know that Icould claim that.
You can hear it in the way Itell the story, right?
Vicky had to goose me along toget over and do that.
So in some ways, I don't knowthat I really felt like uh uh I
(10:42):
was a ready person, but I was inthe right place.
I was where I knew I had seenGod's presence, I had felt God's
strength, I had seen andexperienced opportunities to be
in that that space where I gotto be that love, where I got to
(11:04):
experience that love, where Igot to to to know what it feels
like to be part of what makesthis world a blessing.
A blessing to me, a blessing tothose that I'm able to engage.
I knew enough to get myself tothat camp.
(11:25):
And I wonder if this is a littlebit of what Jesus is trying to
get across with this passage.
We don't always know when theopportunity to be an instrument
of God's love, when theopportunity to get to experience
(11:46):
God's living presence amongstus, with us, we don't know when
that's coming.
It might happen now, it mighthappen later today, it might not
happen for a week.
We don't really know all theways that God is going to be
working through this.
(12:09):
But you know, to be in thatspace where we actually get that
opportunity and to see it comingand to be able to live into it,
I think is what Jesus might bepointing to here.
In this context, I look at thatmetaphor of these two women who
(12:34):
are grinding meal together.
One of them gets taken by Godand one of them does not.
We hear that story and we'rethinking, oh, it's some sort of
rapture kind of thing where onegets to be with God and one gets
to be somewhere else that we alldon't want to be.
(12:54):
But when I look at it throughthis new lens, this lens that
says, you know, God's God'soffering opportunities for us
all the time to have thatexperience, to be that
experience for other people.
And sometimes we're ready forit, and sometimes we're not.
(13:20):
Just like the two women who aregrinding a meal.
So as we enter into this Adventseason, as as we start getting
ready for this coming ChristmasEve in which we we're gonna
celebrate the living presence ofGod in this on this earth, the
(13:41):
evidence of God's deep, deeplove for us.
I'm wondering if we're going tosee the opportunity, see the
signs of what God is doing, ofwhere Christ is real.
Are we gonna see theseopportunities over this season?
(14:03):
Or are we gonna miss it?
Let's hope we see those signsand see those opportunities and
that we're able to live into itand that the birth of Christ
becomes something as meaningfulas it can be for us, life
changing in deep, deep ways.
(14:25):
Amen.
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