Someone has said there is a huge difference between having a job at church and having a ministry at church.

... If you are doing it because no one else will, it's a job. If you are
doing it to serve the Lord, it's a ministry.

... If you're doing it just well enough to get by, it's a job. If you're
doing it to the best of your ability, it's a ministry.

... If you'll do it only so long as it doesn't interfere with other
activities, it's a job. If you're committed to staying with it even when
it means letting go of other things, it's a ministry.

... It's hard to get excited about a job. It's almost impossible not to
get excited about a ministry.

An average church is filled with people doing jobs. A great church is
filled with people involved in ministry.

A preacher tells of the time when a woman, her arms filled with Christmas presents, came out of a department store and bumped right into him. It was a good, solid bump, and all of her parcels dropped on the footpath. As he bent down to help her pick them up, she said, more to herself than anyone else, "Oh, I hate Christmas. It turns everything upside down." And so it does. Christmas turns the world topsy-turvy because it is centered in a baby, and babies change everything! Just watch a doting grandmother or grandfather and you'll see how life is changed!

The Christ child is no exception. This child will change the world! This child is God's son, the one foretold by the prophets. As the gospel writer put it: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

I don't know where life may be defeating you this Advent. I don't know how Jesus may be disappointing you this Advent. But I would suggest to you this Advent that any disillusionment you feel may not necessarily be a bad thing. For what is disillusionment if not, literally, the loss of an illusion? And, in the long run, it is never a bad thing to lose the lies we have mistaken for the truth.

Did Jesus fail to come when you rubbed the lantern?
Then perhaps Jesus is not a genie.

Did Jesus fail to punish your enemies?
Then perhaps Jesus is not a cop.

Did Jesus fail to make everything run smoothly?
Then perhaps Jesus is not a mechanic.

Over and over again, our disappointments draw us deeper and deeper into who Jesus really is ... and what Jesus really does.