More Winter Inspiration: Advent of Life

  

 
Do you know what the word Advent means?  If not, don't worry.  I didn't either, not until this year, and I work at a church :)
Pretty much all I knew of advent was that at church you light candles (and pray that the Pastor doesn't ask you to come up on stage in front of hundreds and read the bible:)) and sometimes, if you are lucky, you get a cool calendar and you get to open up the little windows to see what pops out.

Well, I overheard the other day someone somewhere saying that advent meant something.  That it was an actual word.  And this led me to think about my life in a different way.  Here are freedictionary.com's definitions for advent (apparently Webster is no longer free online????):

The secular definition:
ad·vent  (dvnt)n.

1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important: the advent of the computer.

and the Christian meaning of course is taken from that and is:

a. The liturgical period preceding Christmas, beginning in Western churches on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and in Eastern churches in mid-November, and observed by many Christians as a season of prayer, fasting, and penitence.

b. Christianity The coming of Jesus at the Incarnation.

c. Christianity See Second Coming.

I really like that advent is not just a Christian word, but can be applied to a host of things. I really think that I am in a season of Advent right now, and not just for Christmas.  In every aspect of my life I am in Advent - my marriage, career, this little business I am trying to get going, where I live, and on and on.  I thought about it last night as I was starting to doubt (what else is new?) Flossy George Designs.  I am in the Advent of success.  I just want to be there, at the finish line, where I am creating things and people are buying and things are flowing.  What I realized is that I have a hard time appreciating where I am now, and appreciating the hard work (afterall, who likes hard work!?) that has to go into getting something off the ground.  I have to believe in myself, right now, even when no one else does, or else no one else will.   

As people we are always in Advent.  We are always moving towards something, awaiting something new and exciting in our lives or waiting for the next phase.  Where we have to be careful is when we are not being content in where we are.  I am in so much advent, that I forget to appreciate my wonderful husband, family, friends, roof over my head, and of course my precious animals.  Don't get me wrong, I believe we should always be in Advent.  We should always be planning ahead and thinking about what we want for our lives.  And most importantly, we should always be in Advent for Jesus.... waiting and preparing and anticipating the time when He will come again or we will see Him face to face.

So, what are you in advent for? and are you appreciating the here and now?