Alternate Routes | Advent

I first saw this on Barbara and Nathan's blog. If you haven't seen it already, you should take a look. Andrew and I have been thinking lately, how can we "do" Christmas differently? How do we best embrace Advent, I mean, really embrace it? Not just by singing some carols and lighting some candles, but rather, how should we change our practices to prepare ourselves for the coming Christ? I'm sure at first thought, we could all rattle off a few things: give more to charity, spend more time in prayer, savor those quiet nights of anticipation, read the Christmas story with more expectation. To be sure, those are all good things. But I think the story of Christmas, and indeed, the life of Christ, requires more. For me, this video excites the imagination and so I find it pretty apropos for Advent, but why stop there? The more I entrench myself in a different kind of Christmas, the more I find that the Christian life requires not just a change of shopping habits in December (although it does indeed require that), but a comprehensive change of lifestyle. Year round.

And so the question becomes, how do we "do" life differently?

This question in particular has been hounding me lately. A lifestyle change requires not just deeper pockets (that would be easy), but it requires broader perspectives, freer schedules, trusting hearts, a relentless commitment to each other and our neighbors, and hardest of all, resistance to the idols of prosperity, security, comfort and safety. I've given this much thought, but not too much action. And while at times I berate myself over this fact, I am also realizing that perhaps big change takes some big preparation. Of course, maybe that's just an excuse. But either way, Advent is the time of preparation and I will take advantage of it.