[JOY] 1. Making Christmas Happen - Interview with Laura McCaulley

Today we begin a new series for advent, titled, "Joy of Every Longing Heart." In each episode, Liz Voboril and Jon Hori will interview a different staff member or trainer about how they've seen Jesus and see others seeing Jesus. We start with an interview with Laura McCaulley, seeJesus's Central Florida Trainer.

"I remember sitting on the back patio and thinking I was just showing up for a regular Bible study. I did not expect my curiosity would be engaged the way that it was. I remember the lesson asked 'Can you think of any non-spiritual reason that Jesus might have for wanting to give the disciples some fish?' I thought to myself, 'Do I have permission to think about Jesus in any non-spiritual category?'"

"The questions invited me to bring my imagination to a God that I thought I knew... but perhaps didn't know as well as I thought."

"I said, 'I am making Christmas happen here at this house. If I weren't doing all of these things we would not be having Christmas!' So, as you might imagine, while I sat in the worship service that night I had some major repentance... what happened to me on that Christmas Eve was recognizing how I had inflated my own importance and the importance of my efforts to bring about a perfect Christmas."