Yes, just under the wire… something to use tomorrow for the start of Advent!  I hope you can use this simple exercise to help you focus on Jesus during this season.  Feel free to share with anyone and do it by yourself, with friends or family, at church, etc.  I will have something for the subsequent weeks of Advent and Christmas Eve/Day available next week.

Intro

I was looking for something fresh for Advent this year.  I appreciate the themes, characters, and traditions that we remember year after year.  They are all very helpful in preparing ourselves for Christ’s coming.  But I find that these can sometimes lose their impact due to the repetition and overly-simplistic way we are lead to remember them.  They just don’t seem to speak to our longing for Jesus in the real world.  Also, I am struck by how often we create our own expectations of God and sometimes forget to see what is on His heart.  As we prepare for the birth of Jesus, it is a good time to align our hopes with His.

So, I created something new.  It’s actual a pretty simple set of Advent-sessions, centered around a central text, some reflection, a [hopefully] fun activity, and prayer.  I’ve left out nearly any explanation or “teaching” because I believe this forces us to think and sit with God ourselves.  Also, because I got unbelievably sick just days before having this ready to launch, I haven’t spent ANY time making it look pretty.  Sorry – no formatting, pictures, etc.  Just some stripped-down thoughts that I hope you find helpful.

The reading comes from Isaiah 61, a wonderful prophetic passage about what the Messiah would fulfill at his coming.  It was a source of great hope for the Jewish people through times of war and tribulation.  The pictures of restoration and beauty – things made right – continue to inspire people around the globe for what is yet to completely come.  This passage was famously quoted by Jesus in Luke 4, where he followed the traditional reading of scripture in the synagogue by declaring that today, in him, this Scripture had come true.  And so began this new chapter in God’s plan of redemption.  I thought this scripture on the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom, something I still long to see completed, would be appropriate to focus on during this Advent.

I would love any feedback, especially how it is significant for you during this Advent season.  I’m a big fan of sharing stories – real, honest, and hopefully encouraging to one another.  There are LOTS of people who are seeking Jesus this Advent season.  Maybe our stories will help one another on this journey.

This week: Sunday, November 29

What you need

4 candles that are the same color (for the four weeks of Advent’s expectation of Jesus), 1 candle that is a different color (representing Christ, the fulfillment)
Bonus points if you can keep them in the same space over the next weeks, preferably somewhere you can see them and be reminded of your commitment to focus on Jesus this season.

Begin

Light one of the 4 similar candles as you begin.  Keep it lit throughout your time, and you may re-light it throughout the week if you set aside special time for prayer.

Say a prayer to focus your attention on Jesus and asking Him to meet you during this time.

Read

Isaiah 61:1-3
If you prefer, you may read all of Isaiah 61, then re-read/focus on verses 1-3

Think

Many are mentioned in these few verses that benefit from the Anointed One.  We so easily think of the poor, brokenhearted, prisoners, and those who mourn in general terms.  The problem is, this often causes us to think of God’s promise to them/us in general terms as well.  “Jesus will do good things for lots of people.”  Boring.

• Stop for a moment and read again who is mentioned here – write them down.
• And, what is promised for them?  Write that down too.

If you’re like me, wouldn’t you LOVE to see God’s hand at work in these ways for those mentioned here?

Do

Go and look for some of the people mentioned in this passage.  Maybe you know some personally.  Perhaps, because of time and circumstances, you can’t physically go look right now.  If so, watch the news, read the paper, or even jump on the internet.  Pretty sure you will find some people like we are talking about.
The point is that God is talking about REAL people, people with names, people all around us.  Who are they?

• If possible, place a picture or name on a piece of paper by your Advent candles to remind you to pray throughout the week.

Pray

Pray that Jesus would do now what God said he came for.  Pray with faces and names in mind.  You might be able to pray with people, but it’s ok if you simply pray on their behalf.
You can also use this time for any other special prayers you have right now.

In the upcoming week

Continue to pray for those God brought to mind, and keep looking for others.
You might set aside a specific time each day for these special Advent prayers.

Comments(2)

Want help in keeping your heart in Christmas this year?  One way to resist the over-commercialization and out-of-control spending is to intentionally prepare yourself.  Drawing on the tradition of Advent, I am putting together some resources to use by yourself or with others over the next several weeks.  These will be meaningful, creative, thought-provoking, and fun!

My plan is to create “sessions” for the four Sundays leading up to Christmas plus one for Christmas Eve/Day.  These won’t take long, but will have a reading, an exercise, and some questions to consider.  I also intend to have bonus material to read/do on the days in between.

It’s all in the works and should be available in the next few days.  I am thinking of using a separate blog for this purpose so you can subscribe via rss feed or email and have it sent directly to you!  One question for those who are interested – assuming these will be used on Sundays, how many days in advance would you like to receive the materials?

I am glad to share this with anyone and everyone, so please let me know if you are interested (if you haven’t already) and keep an eye out for where/when to access this resource.

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A benefactor has offered to buy me some new casual/daily shoes. I have narrowed it down to 5 different shoes and would love your input. Here are the shoes (if you are reading on fb, i think you may need to follow the link to our blog to see the pics):

blue suede sambas. i dig these, but not sure about suede.

green superstars. probably the front-runners.

brown suede sambas.  i think i like the blue ones more.  again the suede issue…

gray cieros.  these ones are interesting.  a dark horse entry.

i like these, but probably slightly more dressy than i want

Which do you like for me?
Any write-in suggestions (adidas)?

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guess no one can use THAT insult any more, at least not to imply passivity or fragility.  Watch this video – dirty, aggressive, hard to believe there was no red card!

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There once was a boy with above average hearing.  He could hear his mother calling from far away – much further than the other children (or maybe they DID hear their mothers, but pretended not to).  He was never really sure if he had a special ability to hear, or perhaps it was all that time he spent practicing hearing.  In any event, he could hear, and he loved to listen.

He listened to the sounds of the birds in the tree outside his window, music from the house across the street, and the magical river than ran through the woods at the end of the block.  He also noticed babies crying in the grocery store – not every sound was pleasant.  But he took it all in, reflecting on the beauty of each sound on its own as well as part of the great symphony.

He would follow some of these sounds – down the street, across town, sometimes all the way into the country.  Neighbors began to think he might be a little crazy.  “We all hear those sounds sometimes, but you don’t see the rest of us on wild goose chases, do you?”  No, he didn’t.  He didn’t really understand WHY other people didn’t love the sounds as much, why they would ignore or tune out so much beauty.  But he didn’t mind.  He was happy.

And there were others who DID appreciate these sounds.  Some just smiled as he passed by, happy to see him follow his ears.  There were also those who he helped to hear those sounds too – sometimes for the first time, sometimes giving them a new appreciation for the “noises” they heard but seldom paid attention to.

After a while, however, the sounds all began to run together.  It was too much for the boy, and the beauty was gone.  What had happened?  When had it happened?  Hard to say, but he had lost the song. It was just noise.  What to do?

The boy plugged his ears.  “If I can’t hear the sound, I don’t want to hear!”  And he was surrounded by silence.  The quiet was soothing.  He started remembering things, people, places – all that he had encountered while listening to the sounds.  Good memories, bad memories – they all came flooding back.  And he started to remember the individual sounds and what had attracted him to each.  He remembered tinkling bells and toes tapping and street sweepers and bullfrogs.

Somehow, in the midst of the silence, he was hearing again.

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