Obviously this post is about a week too late.
But I felt bad leaving out week 3 just because I haven't had time to blog about it.
So I'll keep this short and sweet:
Week 3 of [Advent Conspiracy] is about giving more; or, I would say, giving better.
Week 2 was about spending less overall, not giving many meaningless gifts. Week 3 is basically an extension of that - giving better, more thoughtful gifts, and then giving away some of what you've saved (from not giving all those meaningless gifts), to organizations that are doing good things in the world.
Around The Porch this Advent season, we've suggested giving to three different organizations:
More to come about these organizations later, but for now this note Dave wrote gives a good little overview of all three, if you want the cliff notes version.
Happy Christmas Eve Eve!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
[AC] Spend Less (Part 2)
At our gathering on Sunday, our discussion began with thinking through our holiday spending. Some shared about no longer purchasing "things" as gifts; rather, giving "experiences" to loved ones for Christmas (tickets to plays, holiday river cruises, etc). A few of my friends have adopted the four gift idea - one thing you want, one thing you need, one thing you wear, and one thing you read. I shared my struggles with spending too much out of a desire to give (aka, my previous post).
Then Dave took us to Luke 3:1-6, this week's passage in the Lectionary.
"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation."
John is calling on the people to repent and turn around, looking to the coming of Jesus. (That's the idea of Advent, preparing for the coming of our Savior.). He's telling us to look at our lives - what is unnecessary? What is getting in the way of us fully inviting Jesus into our lives?
The Times
After this last week or so, I am really identifying with this idea. It has been a crazy/wonderful/difficult week in the life of the Porch, West Central, and the Pacific Northwest.
Thursday morning a friend of mine underwent a procedure to remove numerous, most likely cancerous, polyps from her stomach. This is one more thing in a long line of serious health issues, and came at an especially discouraging time for her and her family. However, when they began the procedure, the polyps were literally nowhere to be found. I may be known to joke around with the phrase "Christmas miracle", but this time I am completely serious. My dear friend was miraculously healed! This was the kind of situation where multiple specialists had seen the polyps and were extremely concerned - and none of them can understand or explain what happened. Praise God, she's healed!
Friday morning when I walked out to my car, I noticed that the street a block down from my place was blocked off. There were multiple police vehicles, a crowd of bystanders, as well as two news trucks. It turns out that, about an hour before, a body had been discovered about a block and a half down from me, in the alley behind my place. The police have no suspects.
Saturday morning, a woman was discovered dead in her home about two blocks from the Porch building. Her boyfriend is the prime suspect. He stole her car afterwards and is currently being hunted somewhere near Ellensburg, I believe.
Needless to say, 2 homicides within 4 blocks of each other, in a 24 hour period - it was a rough weekend in West Central.
And yesterday, a shooter goes on a rampage in the Clackamas Mall in Portland.
This connection may seem strange at first, but there is a Body Shop at that mall. While I do not personally know the employees who work there, my coworkers and I talk with them on the phone all the time, and my manager visits them periodically. Not to mention the fact that, when the shooting happened, I was working at my mall here in Spokane. Why did it happen at Clackamas, and not Northtown? (Thankfully, all of the Clackamas Body Shop employees are safe and sound).
This morning I saw a story from Clackamas of how an employee at the Lancôme counter at Macy's helped save a customer he was working with, showing her the safe exits out of the mall. Once she was out of harm's way, he ran back inside to help evacuate others. He commented on the fact that he knew the mall better than most of the shoppers, so he knew he would be able to help them find exits faster. I was actually in tears as I watched this, thinking of my coworkers and I - that could so easily have been any of us.
Like I said, it has been an intense week.
(In the midst of all this, I found great comfort in the December 11th [AC] reading. It's a Haitian pastor's perspective on worshipping through pain.).
Advent Hope
Which brings me back to my Luke 3 musings. In these times of healing and affliction, life and death, I keep coming back to the idea of what really matters. At this point it is pretty easy to think of things in my life that are unnecessary.
And in all of this, the most important piece is finding that hope of Advent. Right now it is really tempting to give in to fear and worry - what will happen when I walk out my door, when I walk into the mall? But hope is Advent, hope of the coming Savior.
For me, this week of looking at spending less is about more than the actual amount of money I spend on gifts this season. It's about clearing out the things that clutter up my life, materially and spiritually, making room, preparing the way for the coming Savior. Looking forward to his advent in hope and worship.
How is this second week of Advent speaking to you?
Then Dave took us to Luke 3:1-6, this week's passage in the Lectionary.
"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation."
John is calling on the people to repent and turn around, looking to the coming of Jesus. (That's the idea of Advent, preparing for the coming of our Savior.). He's telling us to look at our lives - what is unnecessary? What is getting in the way of us fully inviting Jesus into our lives?
The Times
After this last week or so, I am really identifying with this idea. It has been a crazy/wonderful/difficult week in the life of the Porch, West Central, and the Pacific Northwest.
Thursday morning a friend of mine underwent a procedure to remove numerous, most likely cancerous, polyps from her stomach. This is one more thing in a long line of serious health issues, and came at an especially discouraging time for her and her family. However, when they began the procedure, the polyps were literally nowhere to be found. I may be known to joke around with the phrase "Christmas miracle", but this time I am completely serious. My dear friend was miraculously healed! This was the kind of situation where multiple specialists had seen the polyps and were extremely concerned - and none of them can understand or explain what happened. Praise God, she's healed!
Friday morning when I walked out to my car, I noticed that the street a block down from my place was blocked off. There were multiple police vehicles, a crowd of bystanders, as well as two news trucks. It turns out that, about an hour before, a body had been discovered about a block and a half down from me, in the alley behind my place. The police have no suspects.
Saturday morning, a woman was discovered dead in her home about two blocks from the Porch building. Her boyfriend is the prime suspect. He stole her car afterwards and is currently being hunted somewhere near Ellensburg, I believe.
Needless to say, 2 homicides within 4 blocks of each other, in a 24 hour period - it was a rough weekend in West Central.
And yesterday, a shooter goes on a rampage in the Clackamas Mall in Portland.
This connection may seem strange at first, but there is a Body Shop at that mall. While I do not personally know the employees who work there, my coworkers and I talk with them on the phone all the time, and my manager visits them periodically. Not to mention the fact that, when the shooting happened, I was working at my mall here in Spokane. Why did it happen at Clackamas, and not Northtown? (Thankfully, all of the Clackamas Body Shop employees are safe and sound).
This morning I saw a story from Clackamas of how an employee at the Lancôme counter at Macy's helped save a customer he was working with, showing her the safe exits out of the mall. Once she was out of harm's way, he ran back inside to help evacuate others. He commented on the fact that he knew the mall better than most of the shoppers, so he knew he would be able to help them find exits faster. I was actually in tears as I watched this, thinking of my coworkers and I - that could so easily have been any of us.
Like I said, it has been an intense week.
(In the midst of all this, I found great comfort in the December 11th [AC] reading. It's a Haitian pastor's perspective on worshipping through pain.).
Advent Hope
Which brings me back to my Luke 3 musings. In these times of healing and affliction, life and death, I keep coming back to the idea of what really matters. At this point it is pretty easy to think of things in my life that are unnecessary.
And in all of this, the most important piece is finding that hope of Advent. Right now it is really tempting to give in to fear and worry - what will happen when I walk out my door, when I walk into the mall? But hope is Advent, hope of the coming Savior.
For me, this week of looking at spending less is about more than the actual amount of money I spend on gifts this season. It's about clearing out the things that clutter up my life, materially and spiritually, making room, preparing the way for the coming Savior. Looking forward to his advent in hope and worship.
How is this second week of Advent speaking to you?
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
[AC] Spend Less (Part 1)
The second week of [Advent Conspiracy] is all about spending less.
I'm a gift giver. Anytime I see anything that reminds me of someone that I love, I want to buy/make/bake it for them. I have an extremely hard time saving gifts until the occasion they were meant for - most often I will give it to the person just because, and be left to find another gift for their birthday or Christmas. (Or I just give it to them two months early because I can't wait!).
The first year or two that The Porch took part in [AC], I mostly avoided it because I thought it meant not giving gifts at all. Obviously I wanted nothing to do with a movement that wouldn't allow me to give gifts to the people I love!
As I've become more involved with [AC], I've come to understand that the idea isn't to stop all gift-giving - rather, the idea is to stop mindless gift giving. Instead of buying countless gifts that will be quickly broken or forgotten, focus in on a few gifts that are actually meaningful.
My love for gift giving can become a real problem this time of year when all I really want to do is buy everything for everyone. In the past I have definitely racked up a bit of debt on the ol' credit card to do so. This year I'm trying to think through how I can give everything (i.e. all of me) to everyone, without buying everything. (For example, how many extra blankets do I have lying around that I can donate to Our Place? For gifts I'm buying, how many can I purchase at The Book Parlor or Boo Radley's (local retailers) instead of Target?).
In my opinion, my family has always been pretty great about giving thoughtful gifts. Growing up, my Dad would always get us each a couple of cds he thought would fit our individual musical tastes, while Mom would purchase new books for all of us. These last few Christmases we've been minimizing the actual number of gifts, and working on upping the thoughtfulness factor, or buying what is truly needed. Over the years we've given fair trade, organic scarves, purchased animals through World Vision or Heifer International in honor of loved ones, made photo books of family trips, and given homemade scarves or hats.
This year my goal was to purchase all my Christmas gifts used, at Global Neighborhood Thrift, yard sales, etc. Unfortunately, I sort of ran out of time to purchase all of my gifts that way, but did it for some! As for the rest, I'm trying to purchase items that are either needed or will be especially loved, with a few silliness factors thrown in also.
This Advent, I've challenged myself to avoid debt while being extra thoughtful in my gift giving. (And making - many of my gifts this year will be baked). Somehow I don't think Jesus' vision for Christmas had anything to do with credit cards or ribbons - based on his example, I'd say it has more to do with giving all of your self to others.
What's your plan for Christmas giving this year?
I'm a gift giver. Anytime I see anything that reminds me of someone that I love, I want to buy/make/bake it for them. I have an extremely hard time saving gifts until the occasion they were meant for - most often I will give it to the person just because, and be left to find another gift for their birthday or Christmas. (Or I just give it to them two months early because I can't wait!).
The first year or two that The Porch took part in [AC], I mostly avoided it because I thought it meant not giving gifts at all. Obviously I wanted nothing to do with a movement that wouldn't allow me to give gifts to the people I love!
As I've become more involved with [AC], I've come to understand that the idea isn't to stop all gift-giving - rather, the idea is to stop mindless gift giving. Instead of buying countless gifts that will be quickly broken or forgotten, focus in on a few gifts that are actually meaningful.
My love for gift giving can become a real problem this time of year when all I really want to do is buy everything for everyone. In the past I have definitely racked up a bit of debt on the ol' credit card to do so. This year I'm trying to think through how I can give everything (i.e. all of me) to everyone, without buying everything. (For example, how many extra blankets do I have lying around that I can donate to Our Place? For gifts I'm buying, how many can I purchase at The Book Parlor or Boo Radley's (local retailers) instead of Target?).
In my opinion, my family has always been pretty great about giving thoughtful gifts. Growing up, my Dad would always get us each a couple of cds he thought would fit our individual musical tastes, while Mom would purchase new books for all of us. These last few Christmases we've been minimizing the actual number of gifts, and working on upping the thoughtfulness factor, or buying what is truly needed. Over the years we've given fair trade, organic scarves, purchased animals through World Vision or Heifer International in honor of loved ones, made photo books of family trips, and given homemade scarves or hats.
This year my goal was to purchase all my Christmas gifts used, at Global Neighborhood Thrift, yard sales, etc. Unfortunately, I sort of ran out of time to purchase all of my gifts that way, but did it for some! As for the rest, I'm trying to purchase items that are either needed or will be especially loved, with a few silliness factors thrown in also.
This Advent, I've challenged myself to avoid debt while being extra thoughtful in my gift giving. (And making - many of my gifts this year will be baked). Somehow I don't think Jesus' vision for Christmas had anything to do with credit cards or ribbons - based on his example, I'd say it has more to do with giving all of your self to others.
What's your plan for Christmas giving this year?
Monday, December 3, 2012
[AC] Worship Fully
This first week of [AC] is focused around the idea of worshiping fully.
During our Porch gathering last night, we spent some time discussing what this means. How do we take some extra time to slow down during this season and focus in on Jesus?
Parents shared stories of advent wreaths on kitchen tables, lit candles, Bible reading, and discussion over family dinners. (Growing up we would use that tall countdown candle that had 25 numbers and pictures on it, that way each night you let it burn through one day, getting us that much closer to Christmas. Of course we also would read Bible stories with our advent calendar in the evenings; I just always loved that candle!).
A friend of mine asked a question that I was wondering also: it seems that all these advent traditions are focused around families with children - but what do you do if you don't have kids?
(I was thinking - what do I do if it's just me?).
In response, others shared about special advent devotionals, or Pandora stations that helped them focus in and worship.
For starters, I've decided to begin using [AC]'s interactive daily advent calendar.
I've also decided to try to be more disciplined about spending time in prayer, silence, and Bible reading. What better way to slow down, quiet our hearts, and focus in on Jesus than by, you know, actually setting aside a chunk of time to be with him?
For me, this also means I'll be cutting down the amount of time I waste on facebook. This doesn't mean I'm not using it at all, it just means that, when I get up in the mornings, I won't spend my first 20 minutes just scrolling through my facebook feed. Instead I'll use that time in a more productive way, like washing the dishes, or taking extra time for my daily Disciplines reading.
What about all of you? How are you centering in and worshiping fully this advent season?
During our Porch gathering last night, we spent some time discussing what this means. How do we take some extra time to slow down during this season and focus in on Jesus?
Parents shared stories of advent wreaths on kitchen tables, lit candles, Bible reading, and discussion over family dinners. (Growing up we would use that tall countdown candle that had 25 numbers and pictures on it, that way each night you let it burn through one day, getting us that much closer to Christmas. Of course we also would read Bible stories with our advent calendar in the evenings; I just always loved that candle!).
A friend of mine asked a question that I was wondering also: it seems that all these advent traditions are focused around families with children - but what do you do if you don't have kids?
(I was thinking - what do I do if it's just me?).
In response, others shared about special advent devotionals, or Pandora stations that helped them focus in and worship.
For starters, I've decided to begin using [AC]'s interactive daily advent calendar.
I've also decided to try to be more disciplined about spending time in prayer, silence, and Bible reading. What better way to slow down, quiet our hearts, and focus in on Jesus than by, you know, actually setting aside a chunk of time to be with him?
For me, this also means I'll be cutting down the amount of time I waste on facebook. This doesn't mean I'm not using it at all, it just means that, when I get up in the mornings, I won't spend my first 20 minutes just scrolling through my facebook feed. Instead I'll use that time in a more productive way, like washing the dishes, or taking extra time for my daily Disciplines reading.
What about all of you? How are you centering in and worshiping fully this advent season?
[The Advent Conspiracy]
The last few years The Porch has taken part in Advent Conspiracy. This is a movement started a few years back by a group of churches that really wanted to let go of the consumerism that has taken over Christmas. Basically, it's all about refocusing our lives and hearts in this season of Advent - turning them back to the Savior that changed the world, and endeavoring to live lives of love and service that honor his life and story (aka Can Christmas Still Change the World?).
Even though The Porch has been a part of this movement for awhile, personally I never really took the time to connect to it.
As a student, life was just so busy around this time of year; all I could really do was look forward to a break.
In Costa Rica, things were pretty similar, with the added bonus of looking forward to seeing family and friends I hadn't seen in months.
After I started working retail last year, the idea of have weeks off around Christmas changed. Suddenly, I only had a 24-36 hour period to head to my folks' place and celebrate Christmas. We didn't even make it to a Christmas Eve service because we really wanted to take advantage of our time together as a family.
This year it's my goal is to really lean into the plan and vision of [AC]. The last few years I have just felt so disconnected from Advent; this year I want that to change.
Based on four tenets [Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All], [AC] encourages us to take the time to slow down and focus in on the Savior whose advent we're meant to be preparing for. Over the next few weeks I plan to get into each of these topics, sharing thoughts and ideas based on discussions around The Porch, as well as my personal experiences.
If you're feeling discouraged by how much debt you accrue this time of year, or struggle to remember why Christmas is anything more than time with family and gifts, I invite you to join in the [AC]. This season, let's turn Christmas upside down.
Even though The Porch has been a part of this movement for awhile, personally I never really took the time to connect to it.
As a student, life was just so busy around this time of year; all I could really do was look forward to a break.
In Costa Rica, things were pretty similar, with the added bonus of looking forward to seeing family and friends I hadn't seen in months.
After I started working retail last year, the idea of have weeks off around Christmas changed. Suddenly, I only had a 24-36 hour period to head to my folks' place and celebrate Christmas. We didn't even make it to a Christmas Eve service because we really wanted to take advantage of our time together as a family.
This year it's my goal is to really lean into the plan and vision of [AC]. The last few years I have just felt so disconnected from Advent; this year I want that to change.
Based on four tenets [Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All], [AC] encourages us to take the time to slow down and focus in on the Savior whose advent we're meant to be preparing for. Over the next few weeks I plan to get into each of these topics, sharing thoughts and ideas based on discussions around The Porch, as well as my personal experiences.
If you're feeling discouraged by how much debt you accrue this time of year, or struggle to remember why Christmas is anything more than time with family and gifts, I invite you to join in the [AC]. This season, let's turn Christmas upside down.
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