’Tis the season for warm drinks, cozy sweaters, holiday songs, peppermint flavored treats and celebrating the birth of Christ. It’s also the season of being stressed out with finals, finding gifts for family/friends and anticipating maybe awkward or hard family gatherings/expectations. Maybe this is the best time of year for you or maybe it’s the worse. Maybe you are stoked about spending time with family and friends or maybe you are dreading being alone. Wherever you are at, this season has ALOT going on. And I for one know how easy it is to be caught up in the hectic nature of December and watch as Christmas just flies by. Afterwards, I usually wish I spent more time in my bible or had more patience during Christmas dinner with family or just wish I was more intentional. Thus when New Years rolls around, I resolve to do better, be better.

And this cycle doesn’t happen once, but multiple times. I get caught up in busy seasons of life and look back on them wishing they were different. Ultimately I wish I would have slowed down and been more present.

So what does it look like to slow down, be present and anticipate this hopeful, joyous reality of Christ coming to Earth to rescue and restore all things to Himself?

For me, it is doing an Advent devotion. This year, I’m going through John Piper’s The Dawning of Indestructible Joy (thanks to Margee!!). You can find a free pdf version here.

I love it because Piper writes about how we need to stir up our hearts and minds in anticipation of Christ coming; to be reminded of old truths in flesh ways. In Luke 2:10, an angel of the Lord said to the shepherds, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people’. Piper points out that the adjective before joy is not small or modest- its great! Yet how often does the incarnation of the Son of God leave me feeling GREAT joy. My heart and mind have become numb, thus they need to be awaken and stirred up! I need to ask myself if I am experiencing this joy and if not what is holding me back?

Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14-19 for believers to be filled with all the fullness of God; to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love and to know it, be familiar with it. Are we people who mediate on this truth? To truly sit and experience Christ’s love for us and this world? What prevents us from experience the fullness of God-to comprehend the love of Christ? Time? Doubts? Fears? Distractions?

My prayer for you and I this season of Advent is to slow down and meditate on these truths of God’s love and gift in Christ. For us to experience the great joy in Jesus’ arrival and work on Earth. And for Christ’s love and joy to overflow in all areas of our lives no matter the circumstance or situation. 'Tis the season.