ADVENT

Tomorrow begins Advent. We will be celebrating Advent at the church I am on staff at. This is new to me. I've never celebrated Advent, nor have any of the other churches I've worked at celebrated Advent.

I'm actually very excited about it because it is an aspect of celebrating the coming of Christ (past, present & future) that I've never celebrated before. In all honesty, I need a fresh perspective on Christmas and the coming of Christ. For me, it seems that the consumeristic aspect of Christmas heavily taints the days and weeks leading up to this most important "holiday". It's like every year we are "surprised" that Christmas is already here - and I'm not sure it should be that way from the standpoint of a Christ follower.

The problem is that many of us from an evangelical/protestant viewpoint grew up being told that tradition was "bad" and not healthy. I am beginning to disagree with that dogmatic belief. The older I get (today I turned 30... YIKES!) the more I see the importance of tradition in our lives. Healthy tradition that is... Tradition that doesn't replace an authentic relationship with the Father.

So for me, I'm excited about taking time out of my day for the next 4 weeks to focus in on the celebration of Advent and really begin to hone in on what we are truly celebrating at Christmas.

How are you celebrating Christmas this year? I would love to hear about it...