Advent Devotional Guide Preface by Sue Wright

Ever drive someplace and have no recollection of how you got there? You don’t remember pulling out of the driveway; turning onto the main drag; stopping at the red light; cruising to your destination. You arrive in one piece, but you can’t help thinking it’s time to turn things upside down. Try a different course to stay on track.

Moving our way mindlessly through December to Christmas Day often feels the same — we’re speeding along in a trance when we should check our internal GPS for a set of refreshed directions. Directions that leave space in all the traffic to ask the question, “Can Christmas Still Change the World?” A route that leads us to “Spend Less and Give More,” “Worship Fully,” “Love All,” and by journey’s end — decide yes — “Christmas CAN Change the World.”

My thanks to the twenty-nine writers from our congregation who have shared their stories and insights this year. Thank you, fellow editor, Janet Hill, for choosing the scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary to inspire our reading and for our Advent Guide design. Thank you, faithful proofreaders, for lending your seasoned eyes to this work.

In addition to the printed devotional, which you can pick up at church, the daily devotionals will be posted as a blog which you can follow here on our website.

Again, rather than a devotional, I offer a story from my imagination to illustrate the kind of renewed perspective I hope you and I experience this month. It will post in tomorrow’s blog. May we, like seven-year-old Misty, be prepared to recast ourselves for Jesus and turn Christmas, as well as our world, upside down.