Entering into Advent

/

Grace and Peace to you this first week of Advent! I hope you had a restful and connecting Thanksgiving, wherever yours took you, geographically and otherwise.

If you're anything like me, the first Sunday of Advent may catch us full, rested, yet unprepared. Even though I watched and helped my mom remove all the Fall/Thanksgiving decor, and completely transform rooms with Christmas adornment, greenery and lights within the space of 24 hours (she's got it down to a fine art/science), I imagine many of us take a bit longer to enter into the season. Much like New Year's, I've made peace with the reality that I may not be fully ready and prepared on day one. Advent is a season of preparation after all. And if I actually want to enjoy the preparations, be fully present in them, I cannot do them all at once.

But I am grateful that certain practices guide my way in. I love returning to our church the Sunday after Thanksgiving for the intergenerational Advent Festival where I know I will make an Advent wreath with my boys, and choose angels from the Angel Tree. We will go select a tree from the First Christian Church of Decatur (though it may take us days to fully decorate it). We will hang our Advent garland around the kitchen table, and begin counting the days, praying for someone different every night of the season.

And one of the practices that really helps me stay grounded and centered in the spiritual meaning of the season is daily prayer and reading. Perhaps more than anything, returning to the Advent scriptures, to stories about longing and waiting, to meditations on what the coming of Christ meant then and what it means now, brings me into the Advent posture. Which is to say, they remind me that I am not ultimately in control, that I long for a Peace, Presence and Power that is beyond me. I then repeatedly remind myself during the busy, sometimes chaotic season that my preparations are occasions for prayer, not mere tasks to check off a list, or distractions that keep me from the One I most long for. That's always the challenge, and I'm grateful for a daily practice that keeps me coming back to that central yearning.

What are the Advent practices and rituals that help you get into the Spirit and meaning of the season? What desires and values shape your decisions about what to do and not do during this season when so much is on offer? What keeps you centered and grounded, in a posture of expectancy for the One who comes?

If you're looking for daily readings for Advent and Christmas, here are some of my favorites that I return to year after year:

If you'd like a little structure, guidance and community to keep you in a rhythm of Advent prayer and waiting, I invite you to check out the Advent Flow, or join us for the Advent Quiet Night on Sunday, December 18. However long it takes you to enter into the season, you are welcome to join us!

And on that note, Michael and I recently got to hear one of my favorite singer/songwriters Carrie Newcomer here in Atlanta. Among the many new songs she shared with us, I was completely taken with the title and lyrics of this one, Take More Time, Cover Less Ground. Here's a taste, and you can watch Carrie introduce and sing it here.

"Now in the season of come on home

Slowing my life to the speed of my soul

Now when the reason’s been never so clear

At the end of a hard but holy year.“

Whatever your practices and preparations, I pray they are full of the wonder and holy longing of the season, that you will feel met in your own swirl of hopes and fears. May we know what we seek has already been found. May we take more time, and cover less ground.

Advent Blessings,

Kimberly