Advent invites us to make space to embrace the liminal space where we celebrate the coming of Jesus while experiencing a reality that feels incredibly distant from Jesus’ Kingdom. It is a space of sacred longing.
This third week of advent, Chasing Justice podcast engineer and writer Katie Nguyen Palomares reflects on how advent helps us flourish.
Join along with us each day of Advent, by purchasing our guide, Longing: An Advent Guide for Weary Activists. In this 20-day guide we lean into our longings for liberation, healing, flourishing and beauty. Together, we join a global chorus who proclaims that Creator is not done yet.
As a child, I used to be so bored by the idea of Advent.
The waiting. The slowing down. The moments of quiet contemplation. I was much more interested in singing a rendition of “Joy to the World,” seeing all the lights around the city, and shaking the boxes under the Christmas tree.
But what I wish someone would’ve explained to my younger self is that the season of Advent is truly subversive. Amidst the cultural urge of the West to sprint, consume, and check off all the boxes, Advent offers a counter cultural alternative…
Advent serves as an invitation to actually pause: To notice what voices and distractions we’ve listened to and redirect our gaze to the vision of God coming down to earth through a womb. What we find is the purest example of God what it means to enable flourishing toward other people.
It’s also a time for us to practice waiting. Beyond the presents on Christmas morning, we get to acknowledge where we are in the unfolding story of our God restoring flourishing among all his creation.
Advent is also a season where we get to practice living in the in-betweenness of our world as it currently is and the world that will be set right, where justice and mercy will flow freely. We name and hold the reality of the darkness, the brokenness, and the pain of our world.
In doing so, we actually move toward each other. Knowing that in doing so within a world that is growing ever more polarized, we join in the disruption of empire that would have us believe that there is anything other than an “us.”
How Does Advent Help Us Flourish?
Advent is an invitation to make space in the dissonant parts of community. The parts that don’t feel as easy to lean into.
When we go beyond conversations of who is right or wrong and instead have conversations about how we got here in the first place, we push back the story of polarization just a little bit.
When we lean into the difficult conversations while holding each other’s mutual flourishing as primary, we push back the darkness together.
When we begin to figure out ways to inch toward one another, we acknowledge and live out the truth that flourishing is a collective practice rooted in and enabled by the Kingdom.
It’s in this work of disruption that we join with Mary as she sings in response to the Lord’s disrupting of her own life in Luke 1.
Longing – An Advent Guide for Weary Activists puts it this way:
“An encounter with the God of love, peace, and justice is filled with discomfort and inconvenience…Mary’s acceptance of God’s promise came at great personal cost.”
And trust me, I know.
It’s not easy to start with curious questions of a family member who holds beliefs that are harmful to vulnerable communities all over.
It’s not easy to watch people close to you continue to be complicit in harmful systems of patriarchy and exceptionalism.
And yet, this is where the beauty of Advent lies…in its ability to be particularly subversive. Particularly disruptive. Particularly hopeful.
This is the hope of longing in the time of Advent.
Jesus gave us the greatest example of what it means to move toward one another far beyond the posture of “stepping into another’s shoes.” The beauty of Advent is that he gave us an example to follow:
He moved into our mess through a womb.
He experienced growing up from infant to adulthood.
He stepped into human neediness and dependency on others.
He made the way for connection and empathy between us and our God . . . and each other.
Longing Leads to Collective Flourishing
During the time of year when medications are readjusted to account for the literal darkness of shorter days, as well as the compounded effect of emotional darkness, we can actually practice living out hope as we long for what will be.
We can practice reaching out to each other in our vulnerability. In our depression. In our neediness.
Longing – An Advent Guide for Weary Activists talks about the power and hope of longing in this way:
“I know that it’s the songs of the mothers in our communities that carry the longing and hope that God has been and always will be on the side of the vulnerable. It is the grandmothers that carry the God story of the community. We owe our liberation to their constant longing.”
In Advent, we join a collective story already in motion.
Flourishing found in the ordinary. The quiet. The stillness. The practice of longing.
In a time where it’s so easy to move deeper into our silos, instead we move toward each other. Here, we serve as embodied reminders of a common longing for healing, wholeness, and light.
Daring to embody our common longings becomes a source of flourishing in and of itself, because it reminds us:
We are loved,
We are known,
We are not alone…
As we long together for what’s to come.
Purchase your copy of Longing: An Advent Guide for Weary Activists($10) and join the Chasing Justice community as we make space for the reality of this promise, experience it daily and join God in making all things new. Want to try it out before you commit? This post is a sample from our Advent Guide.
Katie Nguyen Palomares is a Mixed Vietnamese/White activist, writer, and preacher currently living in Austin, TX. She serves as the Program Manager for Kingdom Capital Network, supporting primarily Black & Brown small business owners to make a Kingdom impact in their communities through their work. She also serves on the Digital Team for Chasing Justice and co-hosts The Beauty In-Between podcast with her husband. She earned her M.A. in Christian Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary and her B.A. in English with teacher certification from Texas State University.
The views and opinions expressed on the Chasing Justice Blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Chasing Justice. Any content provided by our bloggers or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.
