Welcome to Advent week one,
Waiting on hope.
These meditations are an opportunity for us to stay connected to the Advent season all week,
Not just Sundays,
And think about Advent in the context of our everyday lives.
My name is Jess and I have engaged Advent in everything from strict adherence to a tradition that waits for the joy of the season until Christmas morning,
To not engaging Advent much at all in a way that would look different from the American holiday.
So these times are meant to take the focus off the busyness of the season and any religious duty you may feel,
But engaging the season as a time for spiritual growth and renewal.
To start,
Let's take five big breaths together.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
The science behind mindfulness practices is really quite amazing.
As we slow down and do this,
We dampen the activity in a part of our brain called the amygdala and increase the connections with the prefrontal cortex.
This connection helps us to be less reactive to stressors and to recover better from stress when we experience it.
It sharpens focus and over time it can make us more compassionate,
Have positive impact on relationships and mental health.
We are training our minds to be more attentive to life and prayer.
So let's just take one minute to feel your body breathe.
Try to be particularly mindful to feel your body as you breathe.
Be your own company for just one minute.
That was literally 60 seconds.
If your mind went to other places just now,
Where that happens throughout this time,
It's okay.
It's natural.
You're still here.
So let's move on.
We'll take one moment to identify where God has been today.
Let's think about the last 24 hours in a season that is about waiting on the coming hope.
Where are you seeing the divine show up in large or small ways?
In week one.
Our focus is waiting on hope.
Many Christian traditions use different combinations of four concepts in this season.
So if you are following Advent with faith community,
They may have a different focus than the ones we are using for these meditations.
That's okay.
You can use both and let inspiration fall where it may.
Psalms 13 says,
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But a longing fulfilled is the tree of life.
I was introduced to this verse before I could really understand it.
To hope so deeply is to be waiting on something that could be so joyous that it may feel like suffering without it.
Hope in the Christian spiritual history is a focus on waiting for a time that God will make the world right.
Those who suffer have found a depth to spirituality focused around hope.
Advent is a way of life.
We can all learn from those that experienced the world in a way that makes hope so essential.
What are you hopeful about that you are simply waiting on?
What in this season of the year or this season of your life do you hope gets made right or made well?
We're going to turn our attention to our body and have it help us pray.
So if you're able,
Extend your arms out and turn your palms up or rest your palms on your lap.
We do this in a posture of release to the creator.
So take a moment to reflect in giving your hopes to the creator.
Imagine you wrote these hopes on the palm of your hands as they are turned toward God.
Take a moment and in your mind write on your hands the hopes that you feel deeply about in this season.
We're going to turn our attention to our body and we're going to pray.
God,
We give to you our hopes.
We give to you those longings that are in deferment.
We cannot control when and how our hope may come or the length of waiting,
But we trust your time and your plans.
God,
We place into your hands those things on our hands.
We live with little certainty and join those looking to God in hope.
From those in the time of Jesus,
People awaiting the birth of the savior to oppressed people awaiting their justice,
We practice hope by joining those across the globe and over the centuries waiting.
Our lives are outside of our control,
Oh God.
So they're yours.
It is so healthy to release the anxiety of things we cannot control,
But in releasing that what are we needing to take on?
As you close your hands,
What accompanying assurances do you need in this season?
What is the promise of advent for you?
We exchange these hopes for the active spiritual posture of waiting.
We exchange these longings for the purposeful path of remaining in this moment,
Trusting God.
We exchange the desire of wanting now for the growth that comes through the passageway of faith.
The great spiritual writers in the Christian tradition frame this season as an activity of spiritual imagination and challenge.
We are asked to venture back into the space in the scriptures when they were waiting on the fulfillment of God's promise.
So we spiritually engage this season,
Identifying our own waiting.
As we count down the weeks until Christmas,
How do you want to plan outside of the traditions and routines to make this time more spiritually alive and engaging?
Amen.
We welcome you to join us for more guided prayers during the next three weeks of Advent.
