At Home In Advent

The following words for reflection are taken and adapted from “At Home In Advent - A domestic journey from Advent to Epiphany” from Gordon Giles (BRF - Bible Reading Fellowship). The entire book is available from Eden.co.uk and would be recommended to get a fuller experience of this time of devotion and meditation.

The purpose of these devotional is to give you something of an everyday object or motion which can focus our thinking through Advent. There are 3 sections:

Travelling in Advent
At Home in Advent
The run up to Christmas

This is a journey…

Coffee: (De)Caffeinated Advent

Read: Mark 13:32 - 37

The astute amongst you will realise that we have had this reading before. Was it a mistake and oversight? Well as I am addressing it here please believe me that it is no mistake. If anything it is a reminder that the word of God is living and breathing, there is more than one teaching point in so much of Scripture… but we all know that don’t we?

However, maybe you hadn’t noticed, maybe you are not as observant or alert as others… maybe you are just like the rest of us who only realised this was a repeat verse because I told you it was. Are you reading this first thing in the morning, not quite awake yet? What is needed?

Coffee is something that some people need … a lot! As a coffee lover it does make my eyes roll when I hear of the rise in decaf coffee. Yes you can get all the smells and aromas of a rish brew, even the taste of a good arabica bean but in decaf form. It just lacks that punch of real coffee!

However, maybe Advent has been made decaf…all the outward appearance of that awaiting for Christ or even approaching the birth celebrations… it just lacks that umph that it should have. All show and no substance.

Are we doing the same with the Christian faith though? Have we taken all the bits we like… the show, the music, the chat and made them decaf?

Do you feel lacking that umph in your life? What can re-caffeinate your faith to be a Christ centred Spirit filled overflowing cup to get your day going?

Pray for all the coffee shop workers over this festive period.