I like John Cooper, the Ohio State University football coach, for many reasons, but especially for this one. As he was being interviewed once about a player who was in trouble with the law, a reporter asked if Cooper was going to kick the player off the team. He said, "No, I am not going to kick him off, because if I kick him off I can't help him. We are in the business of helping young people grow up, and you can't do that by turning them away when they make a mistake."

That is good news for those growing up, and that attitude is especially good news at Advent. We know in our hearts that we are changed for the better, not by persons who dump us in the midst of our mistakes, but by the ones who stand by us in our stupidity until the light of new sanity dawns upon us. Those who do this in our lives are gifts from God. The love of God is the kind that cares for us just as we are and not as we ought to be. In time, we become the way we are treated, not the way we deserve to be treated. This is God's finest gift. So, "watch -- for your anxiety is God's opportunity."