Advent

Advent, FINALLY!!!!!  Ohhhh, there's hope!!  There's still waiting, but there's hope!!!!!

Contrary to how I'm making myself sound right now, Advent isn't my favorite Christian season.  I actually love Lent, but I think I need Advent when it comes around a lot more (I'm the same way with weather seasons as well ... my favorite season is fall, but I think I always need spring more when it finally comes around).  For me, Advent comes at a time when I've been through a long semester with no break (until Thanksgiving, some "break"), am at the end of my rope and barely hanging on.  O Come O Come Emmanuel can not be sung around me enough right now.

I've done a lot of faith searching lately.  For some reason, people have been asking me, in one way or another, either what Candler has done for me (to me) and/or what have been major turning points for me in my faith.  I think it's amazing just what has happened to me this semester alone.  I feel as if I've grown so much both in my faith and also in my spirituality.  It's been amazing, actually.  I'm not sure if I'm coming any closer to finite answers about what I believe in - to be quite honest, I don't think I'll ever come up with those kind of answers.  I have, however, been able to tap into the divine, or something greater than me, in new, different and exciting ways.

And now it's Advent.  A time of waiting and expecting and hoping and praying.  And I think it's going to be a special season, because I've always approached it from a sociological and productive angle, never from a spiritual angle.  And that's really where I'm going to start this season.  I'm going to take care of myself and wait for the Messiah.