Advent can be a very busy season. It's a time to buy a multitude of Christmas cards and then send them to people. It's a time to get gifts for people. Sometimes it's a time to drop hints to people who will buy gifts for you but don't know what to get (I really don't care - it's more about your PRESENCE than your PRESENTS). It's also a time for a multitude of Christmas parties and other special events, which makes for an exercise in schedule juggling.
In my case it's a time to blog regularly, which is something I have no reason to believe I am any good at...I have trouble enough keeping in touch with people I used to be close to. It is also a time for me to finish off my World Youth Day photos, videos, and notes - and then a time to get caught up in all of the photos that have come since August (hiking trips, etc.). This extra burden related to World Youth Day could have been avoided if I had made World Youth Day stuff a higher priority than the other things I was trying to get done in the autumn. But then those other things would have been on my Advent docket instead. (Sigh). Work has been a bit busy as well.
Perhaps you don't blog, have a World Youth Day backlog, a backlog of other photos, or a lot going on at work, but most likely you have your own things to get done in addition to the usual Advent activities. Your story may not be the same as mine but you probably have your own story nonetheless. Advent can be a very overwhelming time if we allow it to be and sometimes we might agonize over decisions about what to do next. When we have trouble deciding, we delay, which leads to more anxiety. And then we try to think real hard about it, using logic or whatever. We overthink it - and that's usually a bad thing.
If it is necessary to decide what to do next, keep it simple - don't analyse it. Otherwise, if you're busy enough during all your waking hours and then you add more stress by overthinking something simple, you'll start having dreams about everything you're trying to do, and they're generally not good dreams. Knowing the right thing to do is something that will come to you, not something you will get through your own knowledge and power. Remember, the disciples were very simple people but they were able to see what prophets and kings could not. The prophets and kings vainly tried too hard while the disciples humbly left it up to God. Likewise, we ought to make the potentially overwhelming Advent season a time to accept God's help. He's offering.
Luke 10: 21-24
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