Closing Advent Reflections

Dec 24, 2025

Merry Christmas Friends! These questions are for your downtime and beginning your new year!

1. Embracing the Mystery and Waiting

In what areas of your life are you seeking immediate answers instead of trusting the mystery and the questions God is allowing in this season of waiting? (Name the questions without rushing to provide your own easy answers.) Scripture Focus: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

What feelings arise when you consider the qualities of waiting, patience, endurance, and surrender? Which of these virtues comes more naturally to you, and which needs more attention and tending from the Holy Spirit?Scripture Focus: “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

2. Identifying the “Adaptive False Self”

What “adaptive false self” adornments (masks of self-protection, ego-attachments, old sin patterns, or illusions) are you being called to let go of on your spiritual descent into mystery this Advent? Scripture Focus: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

What is your internal, “gut reaction” when you read the words that your spiritual journey is not about finding God, but about stripping away everything that separates you from experiencing your available present union with God? Scripture Focus: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

What habits (good or bad) might you be using to avoid dealing with your legitimate psychological and emotional needs? (This is often a key action of the “adaptive false self”.) You may fail to believe how God knows your needs and how you feel right now. Scripture Focus: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:13-14)

3. Grief, Rest, and Trust

What griefs are you carrying which have gone unnamed and un-mourned, including those losses that echo through your life and shape who you are? Scripture Focus: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

How do you respond to the Holy Spirit’s invitation to slow down and rest into the quiet of this winter season, welcoming the growing darkness, and listening to your dreams and the Mystery? Scripture Focus: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

4. Community and Support

What resources can you call on to help sustain you in your experiences of feeling unsettled, challenged, and disoriented? (Recall familiar prayers and traditions on this journey, as well as welcome new resources.) Scripture Focus: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)

Take a moment to imagine what it would be like to be in relationships that actively create rhythms to help support each other, with wise elders holding space for those undergoing a dark night journey. What are some small ways you can begin that community of support now? Scripture Focus: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

How will you bring the fierce, compassionate presence you’ve cultivated in this season into your community to engage with the pain of the world? Scripture Focus: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)