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Sunday, December 1, 2013

The Wait Begins

 
Today was one of those Sundays at church where there were way too many things going on.  Friends returning with Thanksgiving stories, Christmas decorations going up, World AIDS Day, holiday fundraisers selling their wares, the beginning of an Advent project that has been months in the making.

And Advent beginning.  The wait starts today.

I take in all of these bits and pieces, and I want to patch them together in some way, to make some larger meaning out of the mess.  But really, it's the mess that is worth celebrating, more than any of the parts.  Living in community is a mess--watching the priorities and passions of each member rise to the top and spill over.

I was wanting to give some sort of discipline to my writing during Advent.  A theme, perhaps.  Reflections on the Jesse Tree project we're working through at church.  Heck, even a promise to post daily.  But none of those things are quite solidifying into a project I can get excited about.  So we'll have some advent writing around here.  But I'm not sure what shape it will take.  I'm still waiting to find out.

And for now, that fits.  The danger of Advent is that we focus our waiting too intently on one moment.  We can get caught looking for the shiny crown, while God is busy incarnating in a drab stable.