Advent Update 2

I talked yesterday about busyness putting me off my game for Advent. Part of that busyness is spending time with my wife -- which, I hasten to add, is no burden.

It's just that I'm used to solitude and silence on tap. I don't know how to be contemplative with someone else around all the time.

Meredith asked me how we might celebrate Advent together, and I blanked. What I was expecting this Advent was my usual rhythm of thinking hard, and then walking around with ideas on simmer, until something becomes increasingly clear or relevant to me. Then I say, "Huh! How about that?" and fold it into my meager roll of wisdom about how to love God and my neighbor.

The idea of doing that in concert with another person is so unlike what I've done before, I had to stop to think if it was even possible.

Of course it's possible. That's what pastors do for a living. But the idea was tire screechingly new to me for about 12 seconds.

So I have to do something different this time. I have to be more communicative about the process. I might have to be more intentional about destination, or I might have to say every couple of days, "Okay, I still don't know where I'm we're going, but here's an interesting rock. What do you see?"

Well, it's a time of waiting for good things! This is the latest good thing to come along.