before we continue with the wisdoms i've learned so far this advent season, let me remark on how awesome this experience is turning out to be. if you are a christmas hater (or an anything-hater), this whole re-learning joy thing is a fantastically transformative experience. you should try it.
and so we continue...
#7: peppermint mochas @starbucks
other coffee places may try to create a peppermint drink and they may use fair trade coffee and organic milk, but no one makes a peppermint mocha like starbucks...(specifically one barista on mcknight rd in pittsburgh..i'm literally drooling). this is my personal treat to myself. this may not be super wise or even healthy. but when i know it's going to be a stressful day, i treat myself to a lil peppermint encouragement.
{now available in skinny}
#6: hot metal bridge faith community: redefining my advent season one week at a time...
so i currently intern at this phenomenal church on the south-side of pittsburgh: hot metal bridge faith community. i love this place because you can come as you are, be who you are, and worship Jesus in your own way. hmb is always pushing the envelope on things, and this advent season, we are doing the advent wreath of "tough love." the first candle was the candle of, "get over yourself" and this past week's candle was the candle of "stop buying stuff."
do yourself a favor and watch this video of last week's drama:
{in the faaaaccccceeeee...}
now, this is the lesson i learned: finally someone is giving me a fresh perspective on christmas. finally someone is questioning the way we practice christmas. finally...someone else gets how i feel about the advent season.
because here's the deal: i wonder if part of the reason christmas gets under my skin is that sometimes (not all the time) the idea of the nativity scene seems fake to me. was Jesus the perfect baby who never cried or pooped or vomited? was Jesus' birth in a disgusting, dirty, poopy stable so clean? did mary, after probably hours of painful labor (no drugs or midwife by the way) really sit up, kneel down, and worship the baby she just birthed, the way we depict it in paintings?
{ouch!!}
probably not. the whole thing seems like it would have been messy, chaotic, nitty gritty. maybe part of me likes the messy. i like the realness, the rawness of jesus. ricky bobby might prefer the lil baby jesus; well maybe i'm like that other guy and i like my jesus wearing a tuxedo t-shirt bc he means business but he's here to party too. i like that jesus was kind of an average joe, that he wasn't afraid of sticking his hands in some mud to give someone sight. he wasn't too perfect and glowing and porcelain to be born in a back-alley stable, nor to die brutally on a cross. he wasn't too uppity to offer salvation to the thief on the cross next to him, and he's not too self-righteous to love me.
when i consider the nativity scene as a place of mess and chaos and humility, when i take away the glowing faces and halos, when i imagine the stink and the blood and the mud and the screaming, that actually gives me a good feeling about who Jesus is, and about the nature of his coming to earth. it gives me hope for wretches like me. it gives me peace that Jesus enters chaos to bring order. it gives me joy that he was just as lowly as anyone else.
{would the real Jesus please stand up, please stand up, please stand up...}
