It's Tuesday of the first week of Advent, and yes, this is the article I wrote for the December "Shepherd's Psalm" - SOV's monthly newsletter. I wrote it mid-November, and I agree with myself even more now (no, that's not always true...).
So - I hope you enjoy my thoughts, and I encourage you to ADD YOUR OWN! Let's share our ways of keeping the season of Advent and remembering what Christmas is all about without going crazy. Just add a comment to the end of this entry, and come back to see what others have to say, too.
I often hear the phrase “hurry up and wait,” usually when someone is frustrated with the process of getting something done. I think the season of Advent is also a time of “hurry up and wait,” though without the exclusively negative connotations that most often go with the idea. During this season of Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, we are called on to wait, to prepare, to be ready – not just for the celebration of our Lord’s coming the first time around, but for his coming again.
Prepare. Prepare ye. Prepare ye the way. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. As anticipation builds and each day another door opens on our Advent calendars, the waiting seems to get harder and harder. The older I get, the more I yearn to really keep and observe this season of waiting. After all, things are not as they will be, and sometimes I have very little patience for the maintenance of the status quo. I’d like to see some of the rough places made plain, the crooked straight, the hungry filled, those who weep rolling on the floor in joyful laughter.
Then I remember that God’s kingdom is both now and not yet. It’s not here in all its fullness, but we get glimpses, moments when the light really does outshine the darkness and grace is there to reach out and touch. And there are things I can do to sharpen my vision, or at least remember to be on the look-out. At this time of year I can sum up that strategy in just a few words: simplify, remember, give.
Christmas doesn’t have to make us crazy. Here are a few of my favorite things to remember and try:
- Check out www.SimpleLiving.org - they’ve got a great magazine, called “Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?” with lots of great ideas for a Christ-centered holiday.
- Set a spending limit for Christmas gifts and then stick to it. This year my sister and I have capped spending on each other at $25 – it makes us get more creative in our gift-giving and helps us be stewards of our resources and the planet.
- Try alternative giving, especially for those who “already have everything.” All kinds of organizations can put even modest donations to good use. Ask me for a copy of The Giving Catalog of the ELCA if you’d like more information.
- Call “Time Out!” on the shopping and frenzy, and give someone (maybe even yourself) the gift of your time.
- Use recycled or re-used wrapping paper (or none at all!) and be kinder to the earth this season.
- Find a good devotion to do each day, on your own or with friends or family. Light the candles on an Advent wreath and remember why this season is so important in the first place. I enjoy the daily God Pause email devotional from Luther Seminary. You can sign up to receive it, too.
- Remember that “no” is a perfectly acceptable answer to a yes-or-no question. (You really DON'T have to do it all).
May God bless you, and your waiting, during this season of lights, time, and great love.
P.S. - How are you waiting and preparing during this season of Advent?
1 comment:
As a student, the first few weeks of Advent are incredibly busy with final exam preparations and final projects. So right now, all I can do is take it one day at a time until the end of this madness that is the final weeks of the fall semester.
Yes, it is a time of preparation, but there are times when other things sadly come first. We can only hope and pray that this shouldn't be the case.
O come, o come, Emmanuel!
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