Next week marks the beginning of Advent – a Biblical time of waiting for the promise of a new way of life for the oppressed Israelites. It was a season of waiting. Wanting. Hoping.

I remembered that I had written a post about Advent a few years back and was surprised how relevant the words still felt today. Though I was also slightly saddened that the world still feels out of whack three years later, I’m just as hopeful that we can choose joy and find peace in the little and big moments during this holiday season.

Here’s a shorter, edited version of that blog from December of 2015…

It’s December and we are supposed to make sense of this sky-is-falling world during a season where we – at least here in the West – glorify a fat guy in a red, velvet suit and go into debt buying gifts for people they probably didn’t need, and in many cases won’t even like.

It would almost be comical if it wasn’t so dang confusing.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. The world is broken, and people are hurting, and sometimes I just feel like we need a worldwide group nap. (Sleep deprivation makes people cranky, after all.)

But this is the season of Advent: an ode of sorts to Biblical times when an entire nation – war-torn, scattered, oppressed, battered and bruised – was waiting for the Prince of Peace that Isaiah described.

The fulfillment of every prophesy about Jesus hundreds of years before he was born.

A time to “bend our anger into HIS peace.” (source: IF:Equip)

The expectant hope of a future time described in Revelation when we will hunger no more, thirst no more, and when God will wipe every tear from our eyes.

A time when we remember “the good news of great joy that will be for all people.” (Luke 2)

Praying that you are infused with an extra measure of imagination this Advent season, and that you experience much joy, hope and peace in the coming weeks and year.

Read the full 2015 blog post here.

[Photo credit: Lucas Langrok on Unsplash.com]