In the Christian church, the four weeks preceding Christmas is a time called “Advent”–the church says it is a time of preparing heart for Christ’s arrival at Christmas. For most, it is a frenetic time of shopping, parties, decorating and brainstorming about what to get the person “that has everything”.
The Meeting Place is a pretty cool downtown church in Winnipeg, that is promoting an idea called “The Advent Conspiracy”
You don’t have to be a Jesus believer to see how the machine of consumerism has hijacked this season. I like the ideas of focusing back on relationships and connection, with family, and with others in this world that go without. Connecting with those close to us is important–my life’s work is to help people connect more effectively with those they long to be close to, and to create an ability to be a safe and comfortable place for themselves and others to be around.
Connecting with others whom we don’t know but who are a part of our local community–well that’s important too. The grasp of fresh and safe drinking water for all the world is so within reach when it is compared to the nation’s annual Christmas shopping budget.
This Christmas, my family will have our annual “Christmas stocking extravaganza experience”…a long title for an annual event that involves an evening of hanging out together doing one fun thing after another–a decision we made years ago to focus on time together instead of “stuff”. We will also be contributing to the possibility of fresh drinking water for some distant cousins in the global family, for whom a fresh cold glass of H2O is a gift that gives life.
What will you do in your own private conspiracy to pour lifegiving water into your relationships? Might it even include pouring lifegiving water into someone else’s cup?
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