We all use calendars, we all tell time. Some of our calendars share events but the church tells time a little differently. One of the biggest differences is where time begins. Both in our big story and even in our yearly calendar. The typical start the year is January 1, but Christians take a different route.

Christmas, the birth of Christ, the incarnation of God—which is the story of God taking on skin and moving into our neighborhood—is central for Christians. We could have just kicked off our calendar year there but because we are more concerned with spiritual formation than convenience, Christians decided we needed to be ready for this party, and so we start our year on the first day of Advent. We start our year with a season of preparation. This is significant!

Even though Christians tell time a bit differently we do it together. We don’t encourage this counter-cultural, subversive practice to be done independently, this is our story so we will live it together. It’s not a trendy fad with a T-shirt and clever slogan. It’s the opposite, actually. This journey might seclude you a bit. It might wind up making you look like a wanderer in a foreign land. Advent literally means “coming,” so Christians spend a few weeks waiting and preparing for that which comes, namely God Himself. Joan Chittister in her book The Liturgical Year, tells us that “Advent is about learning to wait.” That’s because waiting is a key part of our spiritual formation.  She says, “It is waiting that attunes us to the invisible in a highly material world.”