and it begins...

today's the first day of the advent fast; happy first-day-of-the-advent-fast day!

it's funny how unfamiliar the practice of fasting is to most believers, including myself. since the advent season is about celebrating the arrival and birth of the Messiah and on preparing oneself for His return, i think to fast without adding these two dimensions into your practices may miss the point. steve and i were talking this morning about beginning our fast, and how we both decided not just to withhold certain things from our routines or diets, but to add another element to it: to celebrate and prepare (or anticipate) everyday in some way.

which brings up something strange for me: purposed celebration. it's not weird to me to celebrate something on purpose; but it is weird that i have to "make" celebration a part of my everyday routine. i guess i celebrate when there is something to celebrate, but i'm already seeing that there's never not something to celebrate because of Christ. and if i'm honest, i think i do a horrible job of celebrating (and this is not a cry to be encouraged or anything like that...more making a point to myself...i'm weird, i know). real, true heart-felt celebration looks so different then my mild hoorays-- it's dancing, leaping, creating, shouting from the rooftops; it's loud, it's proud, it's full of awe, of wonder, of almost disbelief at what has occured; it makes you do crazy things, it makes your hoarse from telling, it's the moments you relive over and over...

we can even celebrate as we anticipate things...and it's weird how these two things hold hands in the redemption story; celebration and preparation. re-telling, re-living and celebrating what God has done through the coming of His son brings those things into our moments, into our story, and because He lives, we celebrate with Him and those that are His in what He has done and is doing, and even in what He will do. He will return; He will finish the restoration He began on calvary, He will redeem fully what He has already redeemed...and because of this, we prepare, we act, we change our routine to shout this out, to celebrate it by living in a way that testifies of its validity, of its truth. its almost like we cannot prepare without celebration being woven throughout everything...