What do you do when you are preparing for a journey? Pack your bags? Buy snacks? Get out the map? All are good places to start. You're leaving home, traveling through unknown locations, and moving closer to your destination.
But what of the journey to Christmas? When do you take the first tentative steps into advent and how do you travel? Do you follow a map? A set of rituals and customs that you use that both support and comfort you? There's nothing wrong with that...but this year....this year I'm throwing away the map. It's not a case of being a rebel, more a case of seeing where this journey leads me. That's not to say there won't be some road signs to follow, some items to pack and some resources to use. Each day I will start afresh, without a plan, no maps, no goals, just the open road. I'm a little nervous. Where will this journey lead me this year?
Here's where my tentative first steps of this idea started. I normally attend the 9:00 church service but I decided I was going to attend the 10:30 service for a change of pace. I also decided that during advent I would take sermon notes to reflect on throughout the week. All this really entails is jotting down any sentences, words, phrases or ideas that resonate with me during the service.
"Which star are you following?"
This was part of a video talking about the star in the sky that appeared at Jesus birth. It jumped out at me. So often we feel we are going about life as it was meant to be but what if we are following the wrong star? In that case, our journey to Christmas will not end with us greeting the Christ Child. I jotted that down for further reflection. There were other elements that obviously popped up during the sermon but this was the tentative first step to this crazy, downright wacky idea that my journey to Christmas this year will not be a scripted predetermined path but rather will evolve as the days go by and will last well past Christmas Day itself. I'm going to follow that star and I'm trusting it will take me just where I need to go.
College United Methodist Church is my church home and it will always be my church family but it also popped into my head during the service that perhaps advent is a good time to visit some other churches. Not looking for a new home, just following that star.
I also picked up this resource provided by our church. Just because I'm going on this map-less journey doesn't mean resources aren't valuable. Sometimes the star isn't in the sky, sometimes it's in a song, or a book or in the whispers of a prayer.
I invite you to go with me on this wild journey to Christmas, to delve into the possibilities that God provides us with, and to travel through advent with a sense of joy and adventure.
Hugs to each of you. Find your first steps, tentative or sure!
