My kids have been putting in their requests for variously themed chocolate Advent Calendars – Star Wars, X-factor etc etc. The trouble is rather too many of us so called grown-ups seem to think that this is all that Advent is – a countdown to a party; a race to seek out Christmas gifts; a time for decking the halls with holly. Yet Advent is meant to be a time of waiting – a time for preparing, not for Christmas festivities, but for the coming of God. And actually when we think about it we do a lot of waiting, as the great Dr Seuss reminds us:
The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come,
or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or No….
(Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss)
Here are a few suggestions of how we might spend time waiting through Advent, products of what might be labelled the new web-based spirituality.
- Join an online retreat on 29th November led by RevGalBlogPals.
- Open the door on a more contemplative Advent with Jan Richardson’s creative devotional blog.
- Pray a daily office through Advent, published by the Collaborative Ministry Office.
- Or for those who find doing nothing is not in their nature, you could change the world by becoming part of the a more revolutionary and active Advent with the Advent Conspiracy.
- Oh and one I nearly missed.. read daily contributions through Advent from a gathering of largely (maybe entirely) UK Baptists on the Hopeful Imagination blog.
Of course chocolate could still feature in Advent, I’m not ruling that out at all. FairTrade, of course!
