ADVENT for the Brokenhearted

I’ve long been asking what I could do to bring more HOPE to my writing and specifically to this blog. The answer came in a lovely call with my hope*circle friends. We gather virtually every other week to discuss our progress and plans. I’d thought about doing an ADVENT series before, but something in that conversation gave me the courage and the will to plan it.

The Holidays aren’t a happy time for all of us. This holiday season, I’d like to examine the pillars of ADVENT and what they mean to us especially in 2020. I’d like to speak into the brokenness of my own past and into someone else’s present. I know ‘someone’ because I have been there myself, and I know how it feels to be lost, traumatized, or brokenhearted, during “the most wonderful time of the year.”

SO…WHAT IS ADVENT?

ADVENT is a time of welcoming and expectation during the holiday season. It is a ritual part of some Christian liturgical calendars and generally a season for anticipating and celebrating the birth and second coming of Christ. It’s celebrated in the church by the lighting of four candles to represent the four pillars of ADVENT, HOPE, LOVE, JOY, and PEACE, and the middle and final candle of the ADVENT wreath is the CHRIST candle.

Though I am a believer in both, I’d like to keep Santa and Baby Jesus out of this examination of ADVENT. Those magical elements that mean so much to some can be stumbling blocks to others. I’d like to speak in a more global tone, and if I don’t, I want to be called on it.

The universal principles of HOPE, LOVE, JOY, and PEACE we can all lean into every day, no matter the time of year. They aren’t necessarily Christian or Christmas principles. The pillars are open to interpretation from all walks of faith. These are the principles I wish to focus on this holiday season to get us all through what may be a dark time for some and a source of misunderstanding for others.

I want to show those who are ok what it is like to be lost in darkness, and those who are currently there to see light in the world.

This is what my ADVENT SERIES is going to look like.
I hope you will join me for part or all.

HOPE in the Holidaze

LOVE One Another

JOY to the World

PEACE on Earth

If you’d like to see another challenge from my hope*circle, follow me on Instagram to see my DECEMBER series: LIGHT IN THE DARKEST SEASON @ewinglinsey

Also, if you’re looking for a Christmas gift for a book lover this year, my cousin has just written this jewel available on amazon. In Unexpected Ways: Christmas in Everyday Life is a devotional for living into the principles of Christmas all year round. Check it out!

See you next week!

xxxlinsey