The Advent of Advent

First and Foremost, today is my mom’s 80th birthday and I ask you all to send a prayer up to heaven that our Heavenly Father may send down His birthday blessings in abundance on her as she enters a new decade! Thank you Mom for all the love, for all the support, and for all the ways that you have influenced who I am with the Lord and with the world.

We Christians are getting ready to celebrate another birthday! This upcoming Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent! I love Advent, maybe a little too much when I look at all the things that I try to pack into a relatively short span of time. This year is no different. A friend asked me to join an Advent reflection study and at looking at my calendar, I realized I have 2 nights available, two! The most wonderful time of the year can be eclipsed by the most busy time of the year. This Advent join me in slowing down for Christ, slowing down and truly preparing the way of our hearts. I am doing this by making room at the inn. What I mean by this is that I am looking at each day of Advent and setting aside at least a small block of time where I can sit in sacred silence and allow God to speak. This is above and beyond my regular prayer time. I am preparing for the Lord with the gift of an extra space of time just for HIm.

Another appropriate title for this blog could have been, “Oops, I did it again.” In late October I sat down with the Holy Spirit and put together an Advent book, “In the Spirit of Expectant Hope.” Below you will find the introduction and tomorrow I will post the Sunday Lectio Divina that is in the book. I will intermittently share daily Lectio Divina from the book as I feel prompted. May this Advent open your heart anew to the gift of our Savior. Amen.

[Expectant Hope]

These are the words whispered by the spirit for this book.

Expectant: A confidence in what is to come

Hope: The belief in things not yet seen (Heb 11:1-3)

We don’t hope for what we have. We hope for a reality not yet realized. This is the Spirit of Christmas, the spirit of God’s chosen ones, the hope of deliverance:

 ~ From wanting ~ From hurting ~ From lies ~ From betrayal ~ From insults ~ From brokenness ~ From loneliness ~ From pride ~ From greed ~ From addiction ~ From hatred ~ From fear ~ From rejection ~

 From not seeing, not knowing, and not hearing God in the details of our lives.

 This side of heaven, each of us carry hope for deliverance from our current reality into something more, something better, more fulfilling, more meaningful. Without hope we fall into despair and in the world today, we are in a crisis of despair. This Advent, may each of us take the ember of hope that we received at baptism and realize anew how good, loving, providential, merciful, comforting, and powerful our Heavenly Father is. Let us open daily scripture and walk from the promises of the Old Testament into the fulfillment of the delivered promise in Jesus Christ, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:2). As the dawn of God’s “yes meaning yes” breaks in our hearts and minds our flame of hope grows and draws others out of desolation and into the hope of the Son.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

(1 Peter 3:15)

 We are going to step out of the trappings of Christmas. The story of Christ’s birth is a story of before and after. Before there was a promise. After the promise was and is fulfilled. We are supposed to be living the ‘joyfully ever after’ of this great love story. Each of us baptized in Christ carry this love story. It is a story of a thousand or more before and afters as we come to live the promise of Christ. Wherever you are in your story right now, God can come and overshadow you with His love and deliver you from expectant hope into realized joy.

  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Let us open the doors of our heart to God more fully this Advent, let His word become truth for us. The spiritual life is one area of our lives where it is okay to want more, to not be satisfied, to ask big. Spend this Advent not waiting for the decorations, or the treats, or the gifts. Spend this Advent waiting expectantly on the Lord.

 I trust in the Lord, my soul trusts in His Word. My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn. (Ps 130)