this season, join me in attempting to be creative (i’m not the best at that). despite what everyone else is doing and what everyone wants, i am doing everything in my power to not lose sight of what this season was meant to look like from the very beginning. i’m not saying that what people are doing is wrong, i dont believe that is true, but, i do believe that by what people do, they can easily lose sight of what is really happening during the next four weeks.

what i mean by all of this is, it is heart breaking to me that we spend these four weeks leading up to christmas doing nothing but shopping and trying to figure out what we want for christmas, and what we can get other people for christmas. again, i am not saying this is wrong, its just something i want to attempt to stay away from this year. this is a period of time that we call the “holiday season”, but a period of time that was originally called the “season of advent”. its funny / heartbreaking how things change so much over time.

my goal this christmas season is to take myself to a spiritual place. putting myself, as best i can, in the shoes of someone who was alive during the very first advent season. and i believe that by doing that, i will catch a greater glimpse of what all this is really supposed to look like.

instead of shopping for gadgets and gifts, i want to dwell on the haystack palace and the manger throne. to think about the hush that fell on that little town of David on the night of Jesus’ birth. so this year, instead of shopping, start thinking. start reading. start praying in a way that you’ve never prayed before. and in the meantime, instead of buying gifts this year for family and friends that they probably dont want or need anyways, get creative and make something for them from your heart. be a kid again and break out the paper and crayons. lets give gifts that can be kept forever, a gift that has a higher price then anything you could buy from a store.

there will be more blogs to come about my thoughts on the birth of Christ, but right now i’m just throwing the thought out there to make this advent season a season of being less of a consumer and more of a sojourner. someone who takes a temporary break from what the usual is and sits back, gets creative, and falls into the presence of the Holy Spirit in a way that we never knew was possible.

here is a video of what many church’s in the US are doing this advent season…