Advent is upon us! In this season, we share in a time of anticipation; we know that Christmas is coming, but it is not here yet. The world waits, and we wait with it.

I recently had an experience that brought this into new light for me. I’d placed an order online, and received the emailed notification: “Your package has shipped!” In the grand scheme of things it’s a pretty trivial thing to wait for a cardboard box to show up on your doorstep. Still, the week between that automated promise in my inbox and the expected delivery date was punctuated with small moments of anticipation.

Finally the delivery date came. And went.

The joy and frustration of modern technology are contained so well in the string of numbers and letters that allow us to track packages as they move—or don’t. This time, the status alternated between “out for delivery” and something more frustratingly nonspecific: “in transit.”

One of my favorite hours working at CLA-LA was “existential crisis hour” every Thursday, at 11AM. Half-jokingly, the interim Executive Director Susan Vincent and I would allow ourselves this hour to question the meaning of life. We wrestled through all of the current tribulations occurring in our world, struggled to confront our personal attributions towards those problems, and questioned how we could even help, in spite of all the restrictions we were surrounded by.  

It was conversations like these that strangely brought consolation because it gave me permission to feel understood and not alone, as well as the opportunity to dialogue and learn. 

This is a glimpse of what CLA-LA has given to me and to so many others. 
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I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like the world keeps getting crazier. It seems to be dying, and it’s not a peaceful process. We try to tune it out or look away. We feel the temptation to withdraw, to shrink the scope of our concern to what we can control, to inhabit smaller and smaller worlds until we feel some sense of safety.

But this is not the way of the Cross; it is not the way of resurrection. The Cross transforms suffering, not by keeping it at a distance, but by Christ taking the world’s suffering upon Himself. On the Cross we see Jesus’s body broken and blood spilled. On the Cross we see what God’s presence in the world looks like. 

​If we take the Cross at face value, it doesn’t look like good news. It looks like failure. It looks like death. But through eyes of faith, we see God at work redeeming the world.
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So this is the call of Easter, the invitation to which we must now respond: Come and die, that you might truly live.

One of the best things about Christmas is that it is nothing like we expected. 
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Perhaps Joseph believed that he could serve God by fighting with his sons against oppression and injustice. In a way, he did exactly that: his son broke the chains of sin and death and led captivity captive. But the baby in a manger looked nothing like he expected. 

Perhaps Mary looked forward to a life of faithful obedience to the law, love for her family, and service to her community. In a sense, she got exactly that: she was the mother of Christ, the one who came to perfectly fulfill the law and whose sacrifice brought salvation to the whole world. But the baby in a manger looked nothing like she expected. 

This blog post was written by Nolan Scarr, a 2016 Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Summer Intern at CLA-LA.

I believe being a Christian lawyer offers a unique and special place within the body of Christ. We possess gifts and talents that our brothers and sisters in Christ need access to, and with Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles we’re able to reach those who need it the most. Here we don’t solely rely on the expertise of our knowledge, but also appeal to our God and invite Him to be part of the solution. Even if a client doesn’t have a relationship with Christ, we’ll take the time to help them and love them as our neighbor. My summer internship with CLA-LA has shown me what it looks like to be a Christian lawyer in a society that is desperate for God’s help.
   
At CLA-LA, we offer free legal clinics throughout Los Angeles County to those who are most vulnerable in society. No matter what the legal issue may be, our doors are open to offer assistance to our client’s needs. We offer help in educating our clients, and preparing documents to empower them with the legal knowledge and know how to navigate through their legal problem.
  
I’ll most remember the client we assisted at one of our regular locations. This man was looking to get his record clean to assist him in pursuing legal immigration status in the future. He was a former gang member who had been shot in the spine at a young age and was to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. I thought it would be difficult to connect with him given our very different life experiences but found this wasn’t the case. I asked about his plans for Fourth of July. He told me he was going camping with his family, and I shared with him my plans to be on the beach for the weekend. By the end of our appointment, I learned he had a daughter, and that he wanted to get involved with a church small group. I emphasized the importance of having a church group to walk with and encouraged him to make it a priority to get involved.

​He mentioned he still experiences pain in his back due to the incident several years ago. I shared with him the pain I experienced from being diagnosed with arthritis at a young age and told him some of my remedies to control the pain. He actually wrote them down and was going to look into them. He thanked everyone for filling out documents and explaining the next steps he needed to take, but when he shook my hand and thanked me for talking with him, I knew this was a special moment, one that I still can’t rightly explain in words.  

​My time with CLA has been a blessing, and I am so grateful for the grace God has given me that has allowed me to take part in His mission to reach out to the most vulnerable in our society.

​The Lord loves justice. 

One of the beautiful and convicting realizations that comes from this simple statement is how inseparable justice is from a right understanding of God and His purposes. Imagine for a moment that you were to describe the nature of God - how would you begin? Would you start with His love? His power? His work as Creator and Redeemer?

Here’s how the Lord describes himself:

How do we respond to this revelation? 
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Working behind-the-scenes, and now having attended 6 clinics, it’s been an honor to witness the provision that CLA gives to those that don’t have the necessary means in obtaining it. I’ve seen countless clients, after meeting with our volunteer attorneys, looking satisfied as they walked away with specific plans tailored to their legal issues. 

However, the more that I get the chance to interact with these clients face-to-face or over the phone, I always tend to feel like I’ve received more from them than I actually do in the giving. 
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​When they invite me into hearing their stories, I am reminded that the most vulnerable, unseen, and forgotten are in fact themselves sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers. They remind me of the commonality that we all share: we are all humans, a precious gift given to us by our Creator. 
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This Lenten season I have been reflecting upon the life of Jesus and how we are to be like Him. 

In Philippians 2, Paul speaks to the church. He says they are to be united in mind and love, and humble. They are not to do things out of selfish ambition but to put others before themselves. He encourages them by focusing on the humility of Jesus--God Himself became a servant who died a gruesome death on their behalf. 
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"Be like Jesus" is a saying we hear so often it can seem like a pat phrase, but the reality is that it is the standard for our lives. Putting others before ourselves means laying down our lives and what we are entitled to so that another might benefit.

This is not the way of the world.  Whether it's in our jobs, schools, or personal relationships, the questions that guide our actions are often self-centered: "How does this benefit me?" "Should I even put in the effort?" "What will be my return on investment?"

Yet Jesus shows us another way. He shows us that love is willing to sacrifice. He humbled Himself to the point of death so that we might experience life. And we are called to know and be like Him so others may know Him too.

These are the questions I am asking this Lenten season, and I invite you to join me: "What areas of my heart need to change so Jesus is reflected more in my life?" "Am I laying down my life so others can see His goodness and know the greatness of His love?"
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At the start of the new year, we often find ourselves reviewing the past and taking stock of our lives. Many times we stand in wonder of what the Lord has accomplished in our lives and the wondrous gifts He has given to us. All too often, however, we stand at the measure and find ourselves lacking. Whether due to unforeseen setbacks, or failures of will, or disappointing circumstances, we are unsettled by our own shortcomings. We are not where—or who—we hoped to be. 

Perhaps this tendency is exacerbated among those of us who thrive on achievement. For those for whom improvement is a continual goal and competition an alluring challenge, the sting of shortcoming can be particularly painful. Whether our ideals are material, intellectual, relational, or even spiritual, we feel the dissonance when we don’t measure up. So we resolve to try harder, to be better, to make changes. We try desperately to control everything from our emotions to our environments. And yet the suspicion that this year might nevertheless turn out like any other persists in the back of our minds.
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