Art by Scott Erickson

Kindred in Christ,

One practice I find formative to my spiritual journey is taking a little time to reflect at the end of each day. This often looks like a brief holy pause, where I review the day in prayer, pay attention to my emotions, open myself up to how God showed up, and journal before bed. I find that I am especially honest with myself at the end of the day. As everything settles down, and I am alone with my thoughts after having spent my energy, I find that I am more naturally disposed to greater levels of personal truth.

The same movement towards honesty can occur as we approach the end of the year. While December is often a period of frenetic consumerism and busyness, Advent invites us to pause and reflect amidst the hustle and bustle of external activates.

I invite you to mark this month as a time for personal honesty, reflection, and prayer, as you approach the new year.

Advent is about our human longing for the coming of Christ’s beauty and justice into our hurting world. In the spirit of Advent, I invite you to take up a new practice this season and create spaces for deeper reflection and longing.

Each week leading up to the end of the year, consider answering a simple question… “What am I longing for during this time?” Write down your response in a journal. As you go from week to week, challenge yourself to go a bit deeper each time. Get honest and search for what it is you are really longing for underneath the surface level of want. And ask yourself what it would look like for God to show up in the midst of your longing, and what is your longing asking of you?

I find that when I sit with this kind of question, while I may not necessarily get what I am longing for in the way I first imagined, it will lead me to greater clarity of how I want to focus my time and energy in the day and year to come. And it is in the longing of Advent, where Christ arrives in unexpected ways. May it be so for you!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz