Personal Advent Practices

During Advent, we wait and prepare for what is to come. As we in the darkness wait for the coming light, are we preparing to receive and share the peace of Jesus? Maybe it is time to consider new ways to incorporate practices to turn our attention to the coming of Christ to the world. Here are some ways to grow in your walk with Christ this Advent.

1. Expectant Waiting:  Each week find time to journal or reflect on the following questions.

• What new thing is God doing within and around you?
• What do you expect in your own spiritual life?
• How does the season of Advent prepare you to recognize Christ's presence in the world?
• What are you waiting for? Does Advent remind you of the importance of patience in the spiritual journey.

2.  Darkness and Light:  During this time of year, the days are short and the nights long. Spend time in prayer in the darkness, giving thanks for the light that is to come.

3. Relationships: Prayerfully consider if there is a relationship you want to develop, nurture or reconcile this season.

4.  Word a Day:  Each day in December, meditate on a word and what God might be telling you through that word. Paint, draw or create something to represent it. Make up your list of words, or use these:

Wait   Time   Go   Awake   Wisdom   Ready   Delight   Holy   Steady   Hope   Justice   Sparkle   Water
Gather   Rejoice   Strong   Free   Mercy   Patient   Sign   Star   Neighbor   Comfort   Joy   Love

5.  Gratitude Chain:  Make a paper chain.  Each day write one thing you are grateful for and put it on your chain.  On Christmas morning, put your chain on your Christmas tree or hang it in your home.

Happy Advent!

Kairos

Today our prayer is:

Sometimes, I forget, O God, that time is kairos in your hands not mine.  Amen.

What is kairos?  What does it mean that time is kairos in God's hands?

The Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos.  Chronos refers to the quantity of time, the passage of minutes, hours, weeks and years. Kairos refers to the quality of time, the right moment. Kairos time is independent of past, present or future and is the time that has ripened, is blooming, or reveals fulfillment.

In our reading today, Jeremiah speaks to the Israelites held captive in Babylon of the coming days when God would fulfill his promise. We wait today for our social, cultural and political woes to resolve. We each wait for the events in our personal life to ripen and bloom.  Advent is the season we take time to remember what it is to wait for the promise that comes in God's time, in kairos.