Today is the first Sunday of Advent. This season has already felt fairly rushed and hectic for me, so I’m choosing to remember that the Christmas season is for us, not us for the Christmas season. Don’t be lured away by the human vanity of it all. Embrace an understanding of the divine humility of the advent season.
Have a hard time knowing what that looks like?
Well, I have a few suggestions of how to get started:
Start by finding some quiet and solitude, if you can. Maybe that means getting up early, or staying up a bit later than anyone else you live with, (preferably early, but I’m a morning person). Then find your favorite mug, go wash it if you need to, and then take the time to make something hot to drink. Coffee, tea, cider, hot cocoa. Once it’s made, go sit in your favorite chair. Sit in the quiet. Take your mug and notice its warmth in your hands. Take a sip. Enjoy the pleasures and mercies of a hot drink.
As you do so, begin to ponder your heart. Are there some heavy things hiding in there? Do you notice places that need grace? It might be a bit uncomfortable, but wander around in those places for a bit. Don’t rush past them. Take a breath. Slow down. Give yourself grace. Find some words to describe what you’re feeling. Reflect on those things. Speak them aloud if you don’t think you’d feel too weird about doing so, maybe write them down if you’re feeling ambitious, but you don’t have to.
Forgive yourself if needed. And ask for forgiveness because you probably need to. Then forgive the others who need it in your heart, too. To forgive them doesn’t excuse anything they’ve done, we know this, but it’s good to forgive them anyway. We don’t accomplish much while we are angry. And it’s hard to offer ourselves with open hands to others or to God if we’re still holding onto a grudge. I happen to believe that the human heart was made for forgiveness, not grudges.
Now think about the day ahead. What do you anticipate to be hard about it? Prepare your heart for those hard things. Make the to-do list reasonable. Go easy on the expectations and heavy on finding time to rest. (At least for today. We can’t always be resting.)
On this first day of Advent, in what ways are you hopeful? I don’t mean, what are you optimistic about? I mean, what are you longing for? That’s what today is about. That’s what this season is about, an expectant longing.
It takes a while to recalibrate ourselves in hope, but once we are there, we can find ourselves focused on the right and meaningful details of this very full season. When done well we will find our hearts lit aflame again in a way that this season seems particularly apt at doing.
Embrace it, and then go get a second cup of something warm to drink.
Stepping Back 