If you are comfortable in this world, then I encourage you to ignore Advent. Christmas is the holiday for you. Waiting and hoping are just not worthwhile, so jump to the fun stuff. Advent only makes sense if you want something else to hold on to. If you need to believe that as wonderful as the sun, the moon, and the stars may be, when they fall away it will be because a new, brighter, more perfect...
2. Pop Quiz: Advent
Mark 13:24-37
Illustration
Matthew T. Phillips
On Friday, a teacher told his class that he was going to give a surprise quiz the following week. One clever student—we'll call him Jamie—went home and thought about this pop quiz. He didn't know the subject very well, and was upset that he was going to miss his whole weekend to study. Jamie tried to figure out what day the quiz might be. First, he noticed that it couldn't be Friday, because if th...
