I love lazy Sunday evenings when the sun sets and the thoughts of the new week start swirling. There’s just enough time to enjoy one last weekend hurrah (like a movie or cooking brownies) before crawling into bed.
Yet, we have no movie tonight and I still haven’t convinced my husband to go buy some brownie mix from the store. I’m hoping that he will give in because I’m cute and sweet and willing to rub his feet for thirty minutes before we go to sleep. Seriously, how can he resist?
We had our second “walking on new legs” service at Engage this morning and in my opinion it went really well. Of course there are practical and logistical things we are still working out but the heart and soul of the people continues to be boldly reaching for those who either see no need at all for some guy named Jesus or those who have been deeply hurt by religious people.
The theme of our gathering today was a gentle reminder of the danger in the commercial extravaganza of the holidays. Not necessarily preaching fussily about how we need to “keep Christ in Christmas” and boycotting local stores who choose to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas (I really could care less)…but instead focusing on ourselves who often become burdened more with debt, who stress out, and whose children are watching with wide eyes as we display before them our celebration of the birth of our Savior.
We were all introduced to the Advent Conspiracy this morning.
Isn’t that amazing?
The concept behind all of this is to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all.
This has really spoken to us. In our FPU plan, we only have so much money set aside for Christmas anyway and have already said that we simply will not go into more debt to give folks gifts they won’t even remember next year.
Embracing the Advent Conspiracy for us is to join with others in spreading the story of Christ this season not with a swipe of a card but in reaching our hands out to those around us. That doesn’t mean we won’t be spending money. 😉 It just means we will be creative this year in using our time and talents as well as cash.
We are very excited about the upcoming Car Winterization in Carlisle. That will be a wonderful way to reach out to those around us.
And I’ve decided that I’ve had enough with the gargantuan amount of brand new children’s clothes that I’ve been hoarding for way too long. So, I’m giving them away this season. I have a friend coming to browse for her three kids on Wednesday and then I’m taking the rest to a local shelter. There are certainly children who need clothes and I’ve been sitting on over 400 brand new complete outfits for two years.
I’m still racking my brain to think of creative ways to give of our time and talents. We don’t have a lot of money to spread around. But Rethinking Christmas is where I’m currently hanging out to get ideas.
I am really grateful that we are starting this tradition before Drew has formed any real memories of Christmas. He was just nine months old last Christmas so this year will be the first time where he can comprehend what is going on.
So, hop on board with the Advent Conspiracy. 🙂
I’m going to go now because we have one more James Bond movie to catch up on (we’ve been watching all of the old ones through OnDemand with Comcast) and I’m waiting on my brownies to finish cooking. While I was writing this post, Daniel scooted to the store for me. Such a sweet husband indeed.