25 days of Advent

Inspired by this article I am starting my own 25 days of giving. I was sort of hoping that my project might have a clever name, but so far we are using the working title of 25 days of Advent. Not terribly original, but its all we got!

I started on Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent. And as a big old encouragement from the holy spirit, it happens that it was ‘church without walls’ day at church. So after a little worship, off we went to serve different people in the community. I unexpectedly spent some time wrapping Christmas gifts for a womens shelter. Today I purchased a gift for a 16 year old boy for Angel Tree ministries.  The idea is to find a way to give something to someone each day.

Some of the gifts are not so literal. For example, I have had several opportunities to give the gift of undivided attention. Yesterday, I got to give this gift to an 8 year old friend who is memorizing a (very long) cheer for an upcoming parade on Saturday. She was thrilled to show us her expertise with the pom-poms and the dance. While I was at the shelter, I was able to listen as some of the college students I was volunteering with talked about their plans for the future.  I’ve had the chance to offer the gift of organization to a harried pastor and also gave away a favorite jacket to a woman who needed it more than I did.

Only three days, so many opportunities to give. Once a day hardly seems enough and I am having a lot of fun with this so far. Its helping to ease my depression and deepening my Advent joy.