This post was originally published in Goshen College’s Advent Devotionals. Goshen College students and employees are reflecting on the theme: “What are you waiting for?” from Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada worship resources. Daily online devotionals are available during Advent 2019 at www.goshen.edu/devotions, or you can subscribe to receive them as a daily email.
By Brooklyn Harris, a sophomore nursing major at Goshen College from Urbana, Illinois
When thinking about all that this coming holiday season brings, we must consider preparing our hearts for the time that is nearing. Let us think about what this season means to each one of us and how it is significant to who we are. We can use this time of preparation for setting our expectations for what we want God to do in this season in and through us.
To each of us, the holiday season has very different connotations and memories. Some see Christmas as a mere consumer holiday and a time when purchasing gifts and seeing family is the depth of the holiday. For others, particularly Christians, the holiday has a significant impact on their religion as being seen as the birth of Christ. No matter what this holiday means to you, preparing can be an important time and can help you remember what really matters about the season.
Also, as we prepare, let us consider how we live. Let’s consider the way that we live in this world.
We should live lives honoring to the Lord and be present in the time given to us, so that we are able to completely engage in all God is preparing for us in this coming season.
Preparing is a time to remember why you celebrate and what it really means to you. Remember how you feel and begin to allow this coming season to begin to consume your thoughts and life.
Scripture: Romans 13:11-14 (NRSV)
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.