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December is the month we celebrate advent:
Advent usually falls between November 27 and December 25.
The purpose of Advent is to prepare ourselves to celebrate Jesus’ birth, to spend time thinking about Jesus as our redeemer, and to find solace in the fact that God came to dwell with us and will make all things new in the end.
The first week of Advent we focus on the prophecies of Jesus’ coming; the second week we remember Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem; the third week we consider the shepherds and remember that God sent His angels to announce His arrival to ordinary people who were on the low end of the social ladder; the fourth week we see the heavenly hosts proclaiming good news; and the fifth week we celebrate.
All of this is done by lighting a candle each week to symbolize how Jesus’ birth brought light into the darkness, as recorded in John-1.
December is also the month we practice being Fallow.
Fallowness is actually an agricultural term meaning to allow the soil to rest. At the Village we practice being fallow in the sense of allowing our lives and souls to rest.
Culturally, the expectation for Christmas season is the exact opposite of fallowness. Parties, shopping, cooking, rushing, going, going, going!
If we choose to engage in the practice of fallowness then we are choosing to allow space in our lives to be still and hear from God or simply rest in His presence. This will be refreshing and mostly likely aggravate our fleshly desires.
How will you practice being fallow this month? Let's encourage each other in our conversations and interactions with each other in the weeks to come.
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