On the "first" day of Christmas....

'Tis the holiday season and time for a blog that resembles more a daily blog than a seasonal one.

Advent is my favorite season in the church year --- I love the preparing, the anticipation, the gatherings, the music, the symbols, the silence, the good will; what better time than this to resume the blog.

This series of blogs will be my own version of the "Twenty-Five Days of Christmas." Because it's now the third of December, on some days I'm going to need to double-up.

Hope this is the foundation of the festivities we prepare for and celebrate. There is the hope of getting what one wants for Christmas.
There is the hope of a new start that the season of Advent brings as with it a new year begins in the life of the church.
There is the hope of gathering the family together.
There is the hope of finding light and life in the places and people that surprise you.

One of my favorite parts of this blog is the section called the "Hope Tracker" along with reading the post, I hope you also scroll down to read the various hope tracks.

I challenge you to look for the tracks of hope within your own life and the places where you live and move and build your being.

In this far too busy season, I encourage you to find time for lots of silent nights and quiet times for reflection. Here's a quote by Cornell West to get you started:

“Hope and optimism are different. Optimism tends to be based on the notion that there's enough evidence out there to believe things are gonna be better, much more rational, deeply secular, whereas hope looks at the evidence and says, "It doesn't look good at all. Doesn't look good at all. Gonna go beyond the evidence to create new possibilities based on visions that become contagious to allow people to engage in heroic actions always against the odds, no guarantee whatsoever." That's hope. I'm a prisoner of hope, though. Gonna die a prisoner of hope.”

Let us journey;

sj;