Action Advent Reflection. Action. Reflection.

“Your actions, much more than your words will be an eloquent message to the world”
Madeleine Sophie Barat

It is in the silence of doing nothing but being present, that I have been shaped into who I am. Sitting every morning on my green cushion, and deciding again to let God be God — the God who is much more capable of running the world than I am (even though I frequently express my opinion) — there God takes out the sandpaper and smooths over some rough edges and creates some new ones because, for me, friction results in growth.

Mine is not the glorious prayer of saints…it is the rough and tumble of just seeking the grace for the next day (or the next hour) and the cultivation of my well-grown skill of needing forgiveness. Sometimes, I wonder if anything has happened in these hours in the darkness of early morning…except that I have a litmus test.

ACTION. I don’t measure the success of my spiritual life on what happens in the lotus positioned silence. Rather, it is what happens when I stand up and greet the world. It is my action that is the litmus test.

Welcome to Action Advent. This Advent, I want to be sure that we are recognized as those who believe in the arrival of God into the world because they see something distinctive — not perfection, but intention. This Advent, for me, is about being deliberate and intentional. So, when you see this little icon, you will know that it’s my Action Advent at work.

Here we go…

Remember those Advent Calendars we all had as kids? The door pops open and out springs a single life saver with the countdown from Advent to Christmas. (okay, true confessions, I have one in my office)…

This year, I am adapting an idea I first heard about on social media “The Reverse Advent Calendar” — instead of receiving something on each day of the Advent Journey, I am going to give something. Here is the original idea that someone sent to me

Now, in my case, I have adapted it — consistent with my allergy to comply fully with the pre-set rules — I have my empty Advent calendar- basket and into it, I am placing something every day. By December 24, it will be a basket of Advent Action transformed into a Christmas Basket for someone else. Hopefully, someone that I don’t know. Here’s my rule: It has to be something that I care about and I would like to receive, and hopefully something that I can both do without and will miss a bit. It can be gently used, but it needs to be real.

I have a friend who is doing it with books, and another who is a photographer and is doing it by limiting himself to taking only one picture a day, and still another who is creating a basket of tools for home improvement to Habitat for Humanity. One of our teachers is creating an activity every day to share with a new teacher as a way to give them a real break over Christmas and a CEO of a large company who is creating a collection of what someone new in his line of business would need to start — suits, ties, briefcase, connections, and a daily piece of business wisdom for a newcomer. Reverse-Advent-Calendar-Advent-Action.

I have been thinking these days of the unsung heroes of the Bethlehem story — the shepherds who listened to the voice within and their families who didn’t tell them they were crazy — those who shared food along the way — the women whose names are never recorded who helped at the birth — the courage of an innkeeper to do the right thing — and all those who had nothing to gain by letting their lives be changed and giving away their time, their judgments and their certitudes about what the Savior would look like. I am okay being among them in my own infinitesimally small way —

And then…I am wondering if you are ready to do what needs to be done in the first week of Advent: roll the refrigerator cookies, get the suet pudding ready to sit for three weeks of “settling” (a polite word for fermentation) … and always the stable — devoid of habit-ants because the young family is en route.

Most of all, I will meet you in the morning as I light one candle and let God do what God does before the litmus test.