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What is Advent?
Depending on your church background, you might participate in Advent every year or you might stay away from it because it seems like a mysterious, age-old tradition that’s reserved for only certain denominations. You might even associate Advent with a candy calendar you see displayed in stores close to the holiday season.
For over 25 years Proverbs 31 Ministries' mission has been to intersect God's Word in the real, hard places we all struggle with. That's why we started this podcast. Every episode will feature a variety of teachings from president Lysa TerKeurst, staff members or friends of the ministry who can teach you something valuable from their vantage point. We hope that regardless of your age, background or stage of life, it's something you look forward to listening to each month!
Meredith:
Well, hi, friends. Thanks for joining us today for another episode of The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast, where we share biblical Truth for any girl in any season. I'm your host, Meredith Brock, and I am here with my cohost, Kaley Olson.
Kaley:
Well, hey, Meredith. How you doing today?
Meredith:
I'm doing all right. I'm doing pretty good.
Kaley:
I'm doing great too. I've got a full stomach because we got breakfast this morning, and that was delicious.
Meredith:
That was really nice, a special treat.
Kaley:
I had avocado toast and probably too much coffee, but now we're here recording a podcast episode, and I'm excited for our friends listening. I know that you know this but for everybody else listening, as our team was talking through the upcoming holiday season, the topic of Advent came up, and seems to always come up, right? It's an interesting topic because it's one of those things that's a bonus tradition that I actually learned more about when I came on staff here at Proverbs 31. We realized that, while it's a norm for us to recognize this season, this Advent season, since we talk about it every year as a ministry, it might be totally new to somebody who's listening or maybe even new to the faith. Maybe you've heard about Advent but no matter how much you Googled it, you just could not get the answer you were really looking for. I know that's happened to me lots of times, using the Google machine.
Meredith:
100% happened to me. These sometimes, I don't know, spiritual holidays that we have created are very confusing for me because I did not grow up in a churched background.
Kaley:
Yes, and we look at a season like that like, "Do I have to do it? But, what if I don't?"
Meredith:
Is this a requirement of my faith?
Kaley:
Yes, for sure. If you saw the title today, I know that you're here because you're curious, and we're glad you're here. You're going to hear a conversation between Meredith, myself and Dr. Joel Muddamalle, our resident theologian here at Proverbs 31, from a few years back where he explained why someone might choose to celebrate Advent. While this isn't a brand new episode, the content still rings true and it's our prayer that you'll take what you learn today to prepare your heart to slow down and receive the gift of Christ in this upcoming Advent season.
Meredith:
Absolutely. But before we jump into our conversation with
Joel, I wanted to let you guys know that our team has pulled together a few of our favorite Advent resources just for you. They're linked in the show notes, but one I want to specifically mention is the Pointing to the Promise Study Guide. This resource was written and designed by Proverbs 31 Ministries, and it's a reminder that in the midst of how weary our souls can be, there is still absolutely a reason for us to rejoice, and that reason is the hope that we have in Jesus. Pointing to the Promise is a study guide complete with daily questions to apply and memorize scripture, weekend reflections, and prayer prompts to do just that, to help you prepare your heart for the arrival of the promised One, Jesus, and see that you truly have a reason to rejoice, even maybe in a weary season. You could get your copy of Pointing to the Promise by going to our bookstore at proverbs31.org. But here we are, no more from me and Kaley, let's jump into our conversation about Advent with
Joel.
Well, I have the privilege today to introduce our teacher, and you guys know who he is, you've heard him before, it's my friend with the impossible last name, who often is featured on our Therapy & Theology series, Joel Muddamalle.
Joel:
You nailed it, Meredith.
Kaley:
That was great.
Meredith:
I know, right? I practiced it beforehand.
Joel:
Oh my goodness.
Meredith:
I worked really hard at that.
Joel:
That's literally the best you've ever done it.
Meredith:
Thank you.
Joel:
Killed it.
Meredith:
I feel really accomplished right now. It was worth all the hard work.
Kaley:
That was great.
Meredith:
It really was.
Kaley:
I'm very proud of you.
Meredith:
Thanks, guys.
Kaley:
Well, today, we're excited to have Joel on and we're going to talk about Advent. We're technically in the Advent season already as this episode releases, but we wanted to dedicate a podcast episode just to talk about what Advent is, what it isn't, and how it can be beneficial for us as believers. Joel and I were talking about this and texting the other day while you were preparing for this, and he said, "What would be the most beneficial? What do people want to hear?" I had to think about it myself, because I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, we didn't do Advent, and I just want to know. This is for me just as much as it is for somebody listening, so Joel, I'm excited.
Meredith:
And certainly for me, who didn't grow up in the church. It sounds so stuffy and formal to me, and I just really don't understand a lot around it, so I'm excited; I'm really excited to hear the teaching today.
Kaley:
We're excited. Well, Joel, your turn.
Joel:
Well, that's awesome. I'm excited about this as well, because I grew up in ... I would say sometimes I felt like I grew up in a bit of two cities in the walls of my home. Those of you, if you could see me, I'm Indian. You all knew that, right?
Kaley:
Yes.
Joel:
OK, good.
Kaley:
I was suspicious, but thank you for confirming that.
Joel:
There you go. Very important, because in my household we grew up very culturally Indian, yet when we walked outside of those doors everything was obviously very American, Western. I got used to, in a sense, living in the tension of these two cultural realities. I think sometimes when we come across a topic like Advent, we've taught about Lent before, we've talked about these different things that are traditions, it can feel so disconnected from our everyday life like, "What is this? Why should I do this?" Then, I think there's some misnomers, particularly, "Wait a minute. I don't know that I saw the word Advent show up in Scripture." Some of you all might be Googling right now or doing a word search and saying, "Joel ..."
Kaley:
Is Advent in the Bible?
Joel:
Right. We're going to get to that. Don't worry. I want to talk about a couple things. But the first thing, just to start off with, I just want to assure everyone that Advent is not per se a biblical command. This isn't something that we're mandated to do. However, there are things that we do not because they're mandated on us, but because they're just good for us. They have intentionality and purpose for us. But before we get into Advent, Meredith, we had an interesting experience a while back … And I'm putting her on the spot, she does not know.
Meredith:
Here we go, folks.
Joel:
Meredith and I, typically if we're in team environments and we're playing games, Meredith is a very competitive person.
Meredith:
I like to win.
Joel:
I am very competitive as well. The other day we walked into a mutual friend's house, and at the time of the recording, we are well before Thanksgiving. I just want to go ahead and put that out there for everybody. We walked in, and I was just taken back by the Christmas trees and the lights.
Meredith:
It was lovely, it was lovely.
Joel:
Some people call it lovely, other people call it, "I'm not quite sure." This seems a little much. Our mutual friend happens to come around and say, "Isn't this so amazing?" I just was like, "No."
Meredith:
What a Scrooge. People, am I right?
Joel:
You're right.
Meredith:
Ladies, back me up on this.
Kaley:
OK, would now be a bad time to let everyone know that my Christmas tree is up too?
Meredith:
No, this is a great time.
Kaley:
OK, mine is up.
Joel:
I mean, I am outnumbered again. Once again, in this ministry, always outnumbered.
Meredith:
Joel is unwell, friends.
Joel:
Now, my kids have almost every year gotten me pajamas that are the Scrooge or the Grinch, and so this could be a thing I need help with.
Meredith:
They say, "Pay attention to your patterns, Joel."
Joel:
You sound like our friend Jim [inaudible 00:07:41.] Listen, but here's something that I was just thinking about. I love to drink coffee, and the coffee cups are already Christmas oriented.
Meredith:
It's great. I love it.
Joel:
It made me think, "Y'all, what happened to Thanksgiving?"
Meredith:
Hey, Thanksgiving is still happening. Do you remember what I said in our conversation?
Joel:
Please let everybody know, Meredith, what you said.
Meredith:
Joel's response was, "It's not Christmas yet." I said, "That's why we call it the holidays, Joel. It's the holidays." It's the combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can enjoy Christmas at the same time you're enjoying Thanksgiving.
Kaley:
And Thanksgiving.
Meredith:
Why do you have to isolate like that? Why are you isolating?
Joel:
Well, I just think that our friend Thanksgiving just got bypassed completely.
Meredith:
No, you enjoy it alongside things. Thanksgiving and Christmas can happen at the same time, it's lovely.
Kaley:
There you have it.
Joel:
That is so good.
Meredith:
Thank you. I'll be here all day.
Joel:
This is good. Well, I began to think, "What is this an indication of in terms of our culture?" If we were to just ... In all serious now, take a step back and say, "Huh, why is it that we have decided to, for lack of better terms, market Christmas, get onto the shelves as fast as we can? What is that telling us about our culture?" This is what it's telling me, and it's actually three little boys under the age of eight that are desperate for a Christmas tree to go up because they know when the Christmas tree goes up, the presents go underneath the Christmas tree. Then, it is this anticipation, a longing, we just need to get to Christmas day. We need to open up these presents. I began to think about this culture of immediacy. We live absolutely in an unprecedented age and time when literally we can find answers to anything that we might want within a snap.
I can wake up in the morning and go to our friend Alexa and say, "Alexa, what's the weather like today?" Alexa will be like, "Well, Joel, it's partly cloudy with a chance of rain, and you might want to grab a rain jacket." That's unbelievable. Then, a seven day forecast. Or I can open up my phone and go to Siri and say, "Siri, who's the greatest basketball player of all time?" Siri would say, "Michael Jordan, absolutely."
Meredith:
Oh boy.
Joel:
I mean, your husband Mac is going to have a fit.
Meredith:
My husband would have a serious opinion about that, Joel.
Joel:
I know, but it's OK. But the point is … and then we can get the stats, we can find out all the things that we would need, and it is instant. But here's my fear and here's my concern that I just want to maybe present to all this as we talk about Advent, what is that doing to our souls? What is that doing to our hearts? How is this forming us as people? I want to suggest that we are all being formed by something, either actively or passively. The question is, what are we being formed to? What are our hearts being formed to? What types of people are we becoming? When we turn to and look at something like Advent, we find something that isn't necessarily described in Scripture, it's not a command for us to do in Scripture.
In fact, when we look at the tradition of Advent, it's a little bit debated, probably somewhere around the fourth or the fifth century is where we have the first instance of Advent show up in Spain and in Europe. The first written evidence came at this thing called the “Council of Saragossa” in AD 380. I mean, it is ancient. Advent is celebrated across four Sundays that lead to Christmas. The bottom line is the tradition is tremendously old, but why was it present? What's the intentionality around Advent? Let's just dig in a little bit around Advent, and then see how Advent seems to be a juxtaposition or a contrast to an immediacy culture. Then, ask the question, "Well, if we were to partake in something like Advent, what is that doing for us? What is the benefit for us as people who love Jesus that it is causing?"
Advent comes from a Latin word called adventist, which literally means coming. Now, this is where we go, "Well, wait, was the Bible written in Latin?" Because my Bible scholars out there are like, "Joel, I don't think the Bible was ..."
Meredith:
You're off point here, friend.
Joel:
You're off point here, right?
Meredith:
Yes.
Joel:
No, the Bible is written in Hebrew, a little bit of Aramaic, and definitely Koine Greek. The Greek word that translates into the Latin adventist is parousia. Parousia refers to the first coming of Jesus, and also the exact same word that's used to describe the second coming of Jesus. When Latin became the world language and the translation process began to kind of take place in church history, this was the word, adventist was used to describe the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus. Now, we have this idea that Advent was a practice, a tradition that the church began to institute because they wanted to capture the tremendous moment of what is called the first advent or the incarnation, Jesus' arrival into humanity. If we think about that for a minute, that's pretty spectacular, that the invisible Father, God the Father, became visible 100% in the Son. That's the miracle of the incarnation, that Jesus enters into humanity. Yet throughout the Gospels, Jesus is alluding to, especially when He leaves, He says, "Wait, I'm coming back in the exact same way that I left."
There's this sense of a second coming, a second Advent. This is so important for us because I think when we think about immediacy culture or the idea of we just need to get to the next best thing, I think about the people in the New Testament, particularly the disciples that watch Jesus as He leaves and says, "Hey, I promise I'm going to come back in the exact same way." Well, they're left in a period of longing and waiting, they're left in a period of preparation, and they're given a very specific task to go and make disciples of all nations. And yet, in the back of their minds, I actually probably think it's in the forefront of their minds, they're also in a midst of eager expectation, anticipation for the risen Jesus to come back. At this point, some of my skeptical friends will say, "Well, Joel, what's the purpose of Advent? Why should we even care about why the church celebrated? Why did the church decide to take four Sundays leading up to Christmas day and the Christmas Sunday and then say this is what we're going to do?"
Well, because the church wanted to put in place a practice of waiting. If I were to just summarize what is Advent, I would say, "Well, it's a practice of waiting." Again, I don't know about you guys, Kaley and Meredith, when was the last time y'all just practiced waiting and you were like, "Yes, I'm excited about practicing waiting?"
Meredith:
I'm terrible at waiting. I really am. I'm a really, really bad waiter, so this is really challenging for me. Can I ask you just a super practical question before we jump into this?
Joel:
Please.
Meredith:
Because I'm not churched, I didn't grow up in a church background, I genuinely don't know what is the practice of Advent. This is the first time I've heard this, it's embarrassing. I went to Bible college, and I still didn't know what Advent was because it kind of felt like this stoic practice so I just stayed away from it. You're telling me it was the four Sundays before Christmas, and what would happen? What would you do? You're saying it's the practice of waiting, but practically speaking, what would they do in the church on those four Sundays?
Joel:
It's so vast and so different. In the Western church, it's typically four Sundays. In the Eastern church, they would do six Sundays.
Meredith:
OK. Wow, so it even varies in that place.
Joel:
Yes, absolutely, based off of tradition. Some of y'all that come from a church tradition, remember every Sunday leading up to Advent lighting a candle, and maybe your candles were different colors. I think there's purple and white candles.
Meredith:
I know nothing of this. This is very interesting.
Joel:
Exactly. There's also Scripture reading. Traditionally, what's happening on these four Sundays, and we've talked about this idea of the first Advent and the second Advent, what is happening is an anticipation and the longing in our hearts where we look back at the first Advent where Jesus comes, but then we're also being prepared for the promise of the second coming as well. This could look different based off of your church tradition. Some churches will take the promise of the second coming, and the first two Sundays focus on the scriptural evidence for the promise of the second coming. You're attuning your hearts in a sense to this promise that Jesus is coming back. But then, Sundays three and four, the last two Sundays, you'll switch to the first Advent, and now you're actually literally preparing yourselves for …
Meredith:
The celebration.
Joel:
… of the birth of Jesus, the first Advent, the incarnation. Some churches will flip that script, they'll say, "Well, let's start with the first coming and then we'll go to the second." The point is it looks so different, but there's always the sense of these four Sundays typically in the Western context, and there's always some type of preparation, Scripture readings, there might be some type of symbolic activity done. I actually know of some places where they eat candy, which is interesting.
Meredith:
OK, I like candy.
Kaley:
I've gotten a chocolate Advent calendar before.
Joel:
You've got the chocolate Advent calendar, right.
Kaley:
Someone gifted it to me one time.
Joel:
If you're really into liturgy, if your church comes into a background of liturgy and kind of practice, they'll have Scripture readings for every day of Advent.
Meredith:
Every day, meaning in-between the four Sundays?
Joel:
In-between the four Sundays, so those days. You mentioned the Advent calendar, so you'll have Scripture reading that you can do individually or as a family, and that prepares your heart as a family or as individually to then walk into a church experience corporately.
Meredith:
On a Sunday?
Joel:
On a Sunday, and then celebrate. You're seeing that Advent can look a lot of different ways, and it has looked a lot of different ways over the course of church history, but it always has this common theme of an anticipation and a longing for Jesus.
Meredith:
I mean, because I didn't grow up in the church, this is all brand new to me and I'm not deeply rooted in much tradition in my life in general, just because my family wasn't a traditional family. For me, just stepping back, because I don't have the kind of perception of what Advent could be connected to, because I know for some people it's super connected to this type of church, and so I can't do it because I'm not part of that type of church. It feels really good to me. This feels like a good thing to do, to take some time, set apart to say, "I'm going to focus on celebrating that God came, incarnate in flesh, and that He's coming again."
Joel:
And that He's coming again. To maybe take that a step further, let me suggest three primary purposes or reasons behind why celebrating Advent or observing Advent is another phrase that people might use, is important. These three are because Advent produces adoration, anticipation, and it aims our longings. I'll just unpack that. Adoration. Our adoration is formed through the practice of patience, hoping with expectation and internal contemplation.
Meredith:
Whoa, read that again. It was too good.
Joel:
Our adoration is formed through the practice of patience, hoping with expectation and internal contemplation.
Meredith:
Wow.
Joel:
Here's where the rub really gets us, because like you, Meredith, I don't like waiting for anything.
Meredith:
Oh no, I want it right now.
Joel:
The practice of patience sounds miserable to me right now.
Meredith:
Amazon Prime, one day, please.
Joel:
Can we just pause and talk about the invention of Amazon Prime?
Meredith:
I know.
Joel:
Next day or same day delivery? Are we kidding right now?
Meredith:
I know.
Joel:
But again, I want to go back to that introduction: What is this forming inside of us? What is it creating? Here's what's taking place, our formation, the way that we're being formed into or whom we're being formed into, it has direct consequences to how we view, read and interpret Scripture. If we're not paying attention to these, a big word, presuppositions, if we're not being attuned to what is happening in our brains and in our hearts, we are liable to make some misreads in Scripture that we just don't realize this, "Oh my gosh, my culture has influenced me in this way." But as people who are citizens of heaven residing on Earth temporarily, actually what Jesus reminds us of in His high priestly prayer, “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), is that we're actually supposed to bring, in a sense, the culture of heaven here, and so now we've got this tension.
One of the purposes of Advent is this sense of adoration. We adore all kinds of things. We are an adoring people. We just saw ... My wife and I are expecting our fourth, and we saw the sonogram and we just ... The oohs and ahs and just an adoration, an anticipation of this child who's going to be with us in a few months. It's exciting. We adore ... Even when you're getting ready for Christmas and you open up ... My wife's got this box of these ornaments that her grandmother gave her, and there's adoration for that because it brings back these memories. We probably all have different experiences or different things that we adore, our children or our families. Adoration should also be primarily an adoration for Jesus. Yet, I think, sadly, I don't think about that often. I don't think about my adoration of Jesus. I think it's assumed, but I don't know that it's actually enacted often because there's so many other things that are competing for my adoration.
How can we, I don't know, practice adoration? That's that second part here, that an opportunity for adoration can be found through contemplation. Again, contemplation is also one of those things that just feels like, "Whoa."
Meredith:
Whoa.
Joel:
What do y'all think when I say contemplation?
Meredith:
I'm just thinking monks, man. That's what goes through my head. I'm not kidding. I'm thinking monks, and I don't know, chanting. That's what I'm thinking of.
Kaley:
I think about meditation. How long am I supposed to contemplate? Will you give me a deadline, please? Five minutes? Ten? An hour?
Meredith:
What does this accomplish? What are we going to accomplish with this contemplation thing?
Joel:
Right, because we're kind of achievers and we've got tasks.
Meredith:
I know right. Gosh.
Joel:
We don't have enough time, I got to hit Amazon Prime. But when we look at the story of Israel and we look at the people of God, we see a contemplative people.
Meredith:
It's true.
Joel:
We see a people who... While they didn't have the Scriptures like we have them now, and so the way that they would tell the story of their origin of their people was, I imagine, around campfires. That’s probably kind of what happened as they're walking around the wilderness. The older grandmas and grandpas are sitting around with the kids and they're saying, "Hey, let me tell you this story about this place called Egypt, where our people were terrorized, we were enslaved, but God in His goodness, He parted the sea." There's this story, and these children are listening to who is this God that would love us so deeply that He would free us from Pharaoh, that He would save us from the chariots? There's this sense of contemplation, of considering who is this God? What is He doing in the course of human history? What is He doing for His people that He made in His likeness and in His image?
They're going all the way back to Genesis 3:15. Genesis 3:15 is the very first promise of the gospel. We know Genesis 3 is the fall, or maybe we don't know. Genesis 1 and 2, God creates everything, and He creates Adam and Eve in His likeness and in His image. Then, in Genesis three, the fall takes place, Adam and Eve together sin. When they sin together, humanity falls together. God says, "I'm not going to leave you in a state of desperation." Genesis 3:15, it's another Latin phrase, [foreign language 00:24:59]. It simply means the first gospel, and gospel simply means good news. Back in Genesis 3:15, God says, "By the way, I'm going to promise that the enemy is going to be defeated, and it's going to happen at the first Advent," aka the incarnation, aka Jesus, the God-Man entering into human history.
I love Derek Kidner. He says that Genesis 3:15 is the first glimmer of the gospel. It's the fulfillment of that promise in the Gospels through the incarnation.
Meredith:
Wow.
Joel:
The second point or purpose is anticipation. We have to remember that we're living with expectation for something that has not yet been achieved or realized in its fullness, but we've actually tasted the first fruits of that object of our anticipation. For example, I shared already, I'm Indian. We eat Indian food at holidays. Indian cooking takes all day, right? It is all day, and I get hungry all day. It's a struggle.
Meredith:
It's a commitment.
Joel:
It's a commitment. I used to get into the practice, my mom makes this amazing ... It's a dish called biryani. It's like this deep baked rice with meat at the bottom. It's just unbelievable, y'all will have to try it sometime. But I would go and she would just kind of sneak out a couple morsels of the meat.
Meredith:
Good job, momma. Good job.
Joel:
Yep, she knew. I'd play [inaudible 00:26:23] and come in and I'd be like ... But here's what happened, I was even more hungry, because I knew that even though I had a little taste of that, that it was going to take a while before the actual plate was going to be set. We have this anticipation, and that's what happens with Jesus. The incarnation is the first taste. What Jesus does in humanity, conquering sin and death, it's a first taste of a final fruit. The finalness of this comes in the second Advent or the second time that He'll come, and He'll make all the things that are wrong right. We live in this anticipation, and sometimes we have to remember that what we're living in right now is not the end goal, because if we think that this is as good as it gets, that could be hard.
But we have to remember that we're a people who are living in anticipation of something so much greater, so much better, and that thing will take place when Jesus comes back. The last one is it aims our longings. In the same way when I take that bite of food and I'm like, "Oh man, I want that so bad. I want that so bad." In the same way during Advent, it reminds us that, in fact, we are to be a people who have hearts that long for Jesus. If our hearts long for Jesus, it's pretty amazing because our thoughts orient along the lines of Jesus, our actions begin to reflect the actions of Jesus, our relationships have a way of transforming into the types of relationships that Jesus would want us to have. It all comes from this place of longing.
I love Augustine. He's was a bishop of Hippo back in the day, one of the early church fathers, and he said, "You have made us for yourself, oh Lord. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." We're a people who are restless.
Meredith:
Gracious, yes.
Joel:
I mean, we are running around. If you think about it, we get all the things that we want at an instant, in a dime, but we're still restless. Well, why? Because I think we haven't found our rest ultimately in the person of Jesus, or we have to be reminded of that rest. It is absolutely our attention to be managed. This kind of brings us to maybe a suggestion that I would give us. Our longings are forming us into a type of people. We often think of ourselves as being thinkers. We think something, and because we think it, we do it. But this is a crazy idea. I'm going to suggest that the human person isn't primarily a thinker, but we're actually primarily a lover. We're formed for desires, yet those desires are knocked off kilter at the fall.
When we look at the story of Scripture, we actually see a lot about the heart. We see a lot about the story of desires and longings, and what is that doing for us? The story of Scripture seems to be in the Old Testament, the way that the Jews would've thought about the heart, is the heart is not just a place of emotion, but it's the seat of the will of the intellect. These two things aren't separate, they're actually one and the same. From the heart, flows up to the mind, and in the mind, the thinking and action is produced. What is happening with our hearts? What are our hearts adoring? What are our hearts anticipating? What are our hearts longing for? I think what happens at the fall is that our hearts ... Again, this comes from Augustine, our hearts are pumps that produce love. At the fall, the pump doesn't turn off, it's actually knocked off kilter. We begin to adore things that are not Jesus. We begin to anticipate things or long for things that are not Jesus. Those things always leave us dissatisfied.
What happens in Advent is this incredible opportunity to reorient our hearts, to cultivate our hearts, to form our hearts into a type of people that can live on this side of eternity with the reality that Jesus did come back. Jesus came in the first Advent, and He is absolutely coming back to write all the wrongs and rescue the broken and better to Himself under His banner, establishing His Kingdom finally and fully. What defines us? What is it that we love? The thing that we love will either produce true satisfaction or utter destruction. Advent is a time that, if we choose to partake in it, it's a time to reorient our hearts to our object of affection that can provide true satisfaction. It's a time to practice patience. It's a time to consider and contemplate the work of God, the work of Jesus in our lives, and to long for the day that He will come back to right all the wrongs. I think Advent is a special time that can be a great blessing for the people of God.
Kaley:
That's so good.
Meredith:
So good. Kaley, do you have any questions, thoughts? I'd love to hear from you.
Kaley:
Well, I feel like I absorbed so much that I'm like, "I don't have a question necessarily," but just this overarching thought in my mind is that I've realized in the last 30 minutes how selfish I am, because as a believer, I compartmentalize the special seasons that sometimes can kind of feel like seasons, especially if you grow up in the church. There's Easter and there's Christmas, and so often I only think about Christmas at Christmas or I think about Easter at Easter. But this challenges me so much to not do that just then, but stretch Advent beyond four to six weeks, make it all year. You said, "Let's contemplate." Contemplating who Jesus is, what He's done for us, and that He's coming again. Contemplating on that makes me remember the bigger picture, to help me not remember that it's all about me, which I think is just the point of this. But for me, I want to make this a daily practice, not just something that I do once a year leading up to Christmas. I think that's really what is challenging me the most out of this.
Meredith:
Well, and I think that's the bottom line, folks. If you're listening and you're trying to determine, should I do Advent, should I not do Advent, or is Advent for me? The bottom line is that whatever method works to point your adoration back toward Jesus, use it. If Advent is a marked moment in your life that you can say, "This points my heart back to Jesus, to adore Him, to live an expectation for Him," then you should absolutely do Advent. But if it's not something that ushers in that sense of adoration and that sense of expectation, then you need to find another channel to do it because it's that important. Because from that sense of adoration and expectation is where the wellspring of life comes, which is your heart. We want your heart to be aligned with Jesus and His Word. Thank you so much for your teaching,
Joel.
I think a lot of people are going to walk away from this challenged in a really, really good way, but also educated. I feel a lot more educated after listening to this, because I really just didn't understand what Advent was, where it came from, what's it look like, all that kind of stuff. Thank you for spending a little bit of time with us today, I really appreciate it.
Joel:
So much fun.
Kaley:
Wow, Mer, what a great conversation with Joel. It's interesting to me to listen to this three years after it released because so much about our lives have changed. I mean, Meredith, I don't know about you, but my life is now crazy busy. I mean, it was busy ... I thought I was busy before having a kid, but now that's added a level of complexity to my schedule where I literally have every hour of the day accounted for while caring for another human. You've told me before you think for another person, and that takes a mental toll.
Meredith:
A tremendous amount.
Kaley:
All the moms out there rejoice.
Meredith:
And said, "Amen."
Kaley:
I know. But as I was listening back to this teaching, I want to point out what Joel mentioned that Advent produces, and he uses a couple of "A" words — adoration, anticipation and aims are longings. For me, I know when I'm so focused on my busyness and have my head down, plowing through my day, my adoration ... I'm just letting all my journal entries air out here. My adoration looks like seeing another thing I can check off my to-do list. Anticipation looks like 7:30 p.m. at night whenever my little boy goes to bed, and I finally can breathe and have a minute to myself. But a lot of those minutes are crashing on the couch after scarfing down dinner, to watch a show for maybe 30 minutes, and then crawl into bed, and then do the next day, and then the next day and the next day. Do you ever find yourself stuck in that cycle too?
Meredith:
100%.
Kaley:
I mean, I think that's really kind of what makes our souls weary is because we have our adoration, our anticipation focused so much on just getting through things, and then there's the heaviness of the end of the year that I think we kind of reflect on and look back at what hasn't gone right. Or maybe the holidays just reduce a level of heaviness for some people because you go into it knowing that things could have been better and should have been better, but they're not. In the midst of the holiday season, I know for me it's just extra challenging to add one more thing in like thinking about Advent. It's like, "Do I need to retrain my brain to do this? Can I just continue with the rest of the year like I'm already going through?" But that's not the way that I want to see my relationship with Christ, or even observing Advent, if that's something that I choose to do this year, I want to want a deeper relationship with Jesus.
But like Joel said in his teaching, it takes the discipline of actively turning my adoration to Christ and then anticipating His presence in my life through His Word that will settle my soul in this season and will give me the hope that I need to finish this year out strong.
Meredith:
Absolutely. If this is you, please hear that we see you. Goodness … do we see you and understand what it feels like. We see you as the busy mom, the college student writing papers and studying for finals, the girl logging extra hours or starting a side hustle to make extra money to make ends meet or to be able to visit family over the holidays. Something I said before the episode ended was, “whatever method points your adoration back to Jesus, use it.” For some of you, that might be opening up the Bible app on your phone in the morning instead of Instagram or email and starting a routine of reading God's Word daily for just a few minutes before you visit any of those other apps.
Kaley:
I've been there in that season, for sure.
Meredith:
It's true. For others, maybe you're ready to intentionally use this time to study with an Advent resource. We mentioned this at the top of the episode, but just as a reminder, our team created the Pointing to the Promise Advent Study Guide with you in mind. You can get your copy today using the link in our show notes, or you can go straight to Proverbs31.org and visit our bookstore there, but we want to equip you to be intentional about whether it's just a few minutes in the morning to redirect your adoration towards Jesus or whether you have 30 minutes. We want to make sure we're helping you get through this season well and rejoicing in the promise of who Jesus is and what's to come.
Kaley:
Amen. Well, that's all for today, friends. At Proverbs 31 Ministries, we believe when you know the truth and love the truth, it changes everything.