Welcome to Advent week two,
Waiting on answers.
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.
In a minute.
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 two,
We are focusing on faith.
Many traditions use different combinations of four concepts in the season.
So if you're following Advent with a faith community,
They may have a different focus.
That's okay.
You can engage both and let inspiration happen where it may.
Faith is intrinsically an Advent experience.
We have faith because of what we cannot prove or make happen that is so essential to our lives for those that have committed themselves to the spiritual path of historic Christian spirituality.
We give our lives to the way Jesus asked his followers to pointing us to an active adventure with a God who is invisible and often silent.
We put real faith in a God we want to believe hears us,
Sees us,
Cares,
And will intervene when we need.
What assurances or answers have you been desiring that you can surrender?
What things have you wanted to hear from God about,
But need to find security through simple silence and faith?
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.
Let's take a moment to reflect on the surrender of our assurances.
Imagine you wrote these assurances on the palms of your hands as they are turned towards God.
Take a minute and in your mind,
Write on your hands.
The assurances that you feel deeply about that you need to surrender.
Let's take a moment to reflect on the surrender of our guarantees.
God,
We give to you certainties that we want,
But cannot have.
We give to you those demands we make upon you.
We cannot control when or how the creator of the universe may show up in our lives 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 are yours.
It is so healthy to release the anxiety of things we cannot control,
But in releasing it,
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 needs for assurances for the active spiritual posture of waiting.
We exchange these longings for answers for the purposeful path of remaining in this moment,
Trusting God.
We exchange the desires for wanting our own way for the growth that comes through the passage 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 two weeks of Advent.
