So has anyone here ever known, or maybe you are living with a closet slob? Max Licado in his book, ‘In The Grip of Grace,’ He tells this interesting story of a man who had been a closet slob all of his life, and he just couldn’t comprehend the logic of neatness. 

Why make a bed in the morning if you’re going to be using it again that night? Why put a lid on the toothpaste tub if you’re going to take it off again later for sure the next morning? And so the man admitted to being compulsive about being messy. 

Then he got married. And his wife was patient. She said she didn’t mind his habits if he didn’t mind sleeping on the couch. He did mind. And he began working on changing. 

And so he enrolled himself in a 12-step program for slobs. And a physical therapist helped him rediscover muscles used for hanging up his shirts and placing toilet paper on the holder. His nose was reintroduced to the smell of pine-sol. And by the time his in-laws arrived for a visit, he was a new man. 

Then came a moment of truth. His wife went out of town for a week. And at first he reverted to his old ways. He figured he could be a slob for six days and clean on the seventh. 

But something happened. It was strange. He could no longer relax with dirty dishes in the sink or towels flung around the bathroom or clothes on the floor or sheets piled up like a mountain on the bed. What happened? 

It was simple. He had been exposed to a better standard of living. And friends, that’s what Jesus does. 

We read in today’s gospel that the word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness. He went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sin. 

Well, what does this all mean for us practically speaking? From the very beginning, Jesus clearly stated that his call to us to follow him and his appeal for us to transform our lives. These are inseparable. 

To follow Jesus is to change your life. Each of us without exception needs to do better. To think better, pray better, share better, love better, care better than ever before. And so the readings remind us if we want to be in God’s future, that will be determined by what we are doing now in the present. Abounding in love, valuing the things that really matter, harvesting the fruits of justice, acknowledging our failures, and making amends. 

If we want to have these great things of God in our hearts, we must put our whole hearts into what matters to God. 

And so today, I ask you to consider into what situation or into whose life is God leading you to put your heart into this advent season.