Advent Word 2021: Coming Soon!

 Advent Words 2021: Coming Soon!

We are just a few weeks away from the Advent season. This is my sixth year hosting the Advent Words Challenge and I have been thinking a lot about how to proceed this year. I had a number of new ideas, but then a few weeks ago I was studying for my weekly Bible study, and a passage was cross-referenced that I am very familiar with. Only this time when I read it I noticed that both of the Advents of Christ were referenced. Somehow I had never noticed this before even though I have studied the passage many times. That passage was Titus 2:11-14.

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

It's not a traditional Advent or Christmas passage, but I really like that we see Christ's first Advent, "the grace of God has appeared" and His second Advent, "the glorious appearing of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ". This is what the Advent Season is all about! Too often in our present day, we tend to focus mainly on the first Advent, the birth of Christ. But the Advent season is a call for us to both look back and look forward. We look back and connect with the longing for the Messiah the Israelites had, rejoicing in the Incarnation, and looking forward we connect with our own longing for the Messiah's return - the second Advent. And in between the two Advents - grace to glory - we must connect with God's call on how His people are to live out the life of Christ in this present age.

For the Advent Words Challenge we will spend the first half of the Advent season digging into Titus 2:11-14 and explore the Advent words we find within it. Words such as appear, grace, salvation, hope, wait, glory, Savior. etc. Then for the last half of the challenge we will look at some of the more traditional Advent and Christmas words and passages.

I enjoy having a separate journal for each year's challenge, so I made a new journal to create in for this year. I ended up miscalculating the number of pages I needed and now have double the amount! So, I may end up putting study notes in the back.

I decided to play some more with the painted paper torn collage style I have been doing recently, and have begun making background pages.

I hope you will join me this year. The Advent Words Challenges are meant to be done in community. I so enjoy seeing how people interpret the words and Scripture passages into various creative expresssions - art journaling, collage, photography, poetry, digital art, etc. And I enjoy the conversation and study insights in the Words Challenge Facebook group.

In the next few weeks I will post a calendar with the words and Scripture passages. Here's how it will work and how you can join along:

• I will post daily Bible study devotions, along with how I responded creatively, on this blog each day beginning on November 28 through December 24. You can follow this blog by email or there will be daily links to the posts in the Words Challenge Facebook group
• Respond with whatever creative practice you choose: art journaling, mixed media art, scrapbook, photography, digital art, poetry, creative writing, calligraphy - any way you choose! As you take in the Scripture and devotions into your heart and mind, let it sink even deeper as you practice creatively with your hands.
• Join the Words Challenge Facebook group where you can share your art and ideas and join the conversation through the Advent season and beyond.  I host a number of Words Challenges throughout the year. 
• Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2021.
• In the weeks before the Advent season begins reflect and prepare: choose the creative form you will use for your daily practice. Make or buy a journal that fits your creative form.

Pilgrimage 2

Pilgrimage 2

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent time this past summer studying the theme of pilgrimage in order to make some art for a magazine that Kris Camealy was compiling to coincide with a retreat she had planned for March of this year. Unfortunately the retreat has been cancelled, like so much of life in these days of the coronavirus pandemic. 

As promised in that previous post, today I'm going to share some of what I studied on the topic of pilgrimage, as well as more photos from the journal I made to accompany this study.

By definition, a pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place; a spiritual journey; a holy expedition. Often when we think of this word we think of long ago times when people would travel to go to a religious place for observance of a holy holiday. We see the start of this tradition in the Old Testament, where God spoke of his covenant with his people. Part of that covenant was to include pilgrimage:

"Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord, the God of Israel." Exodus 34:23

We then see throughout the Old Testament stories and Psalms reference to the annual pilgrimages made to the temple, to Jerusalem. But there is a different use of the term pilgrimage that uses it as a metaphor for viewing our life in Christ as a spiritual journey; a journey of transformation.

A journey implies that a leaving takes place and that we travel with a destination in mind. We see this type of language as we read God's Word, where Christ-followers are on a journey of leaving their former way of life, of living a new life, of traveling on a journey with the destination being that of becoming Christ-like, and with our eyes on our true home. And so we read Bible verses and passages that use terms such as path, road, way:

"You have made know to me the path of life." Psalm 16:11

:...Lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:24

"And a highway will be there; it will be called the way of holiness...it will be for those who walk in that way." Isaiah 35:8

"But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to Life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:14

"Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." Psalm 84:5

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"Jesus said, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

In fact, in the book of Acts we see many references to early Christians being called "The Way" since they followed the way of Jesus and shared with others the way to be saved. (Acts 9:2; 16:17; 18:25-26; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22)

With the call throughout the New Testament to keep our eyes on our true home, Christians are often reminded that in this world we are aliens and strangers - pilgrims - who, while we make this place our home, we are merely passing through on the way to our eternal home. And while we have our final destination in view, our focus is on the journey, the process of becoming more and more like the One who redeemed us and called us to this new life.

Living life as a pilgrim calls us to view all of our life as one who is on mission, on a journey, making us all missionaries, whether we travel abroad or stay in our home towns. It's a way of seeing this life through the eyes of an exile in a foreign land. Author Elliot Clark, in his book Evangelism as Exiles, puts it this way:

"In my experience, many missionaries - even volunteers on short-term ministry trips - tend to consciously approach every moment in relation to mission. They saturate their days in prayer. They consider the intended or unintended consequences of their mannerisms and behavior, being careful how they spend their money, how they dress, and how they interact with others. They demonstrate the utmost respect and honor for locals, even to people drastically different from them. They also view random encounters as God-ordained opportunities, so they purposefully speak with just about anyone about their faith."

But then, this thought now leads me away from the focus of my journal and into a focus on  missional living and outreach.  I spoke on that topic last weekend at our Women's Ministry brunch, but I'll save that for another post, maybe "Pilgrimage 3" if there's an interest. Let me know in the comments. :)

So, this study and journaling was all done back in the summer, but in our current times it feels even more appropriate to remember who we are. And also to remember "whose" we are. In times that feel uncertain and even scary, it's good to remember that this world is not our true home. While we journey through this life, we who are Christ-followers are called to a particular way of life and way to live. In the midst of social-distancing and self-isolation, of no church services, of schools and businesses closing, of job losses and economic crisis, I feel the call even more deeply to be on the journey Jesus has called us to. I feel called, now more than ever, to serve those in need and to care for one another, while at the same time practicing wisdom and taking precautions. We need to find ways to care for those who will struggle with food crises during this time. To take care of the needs of the elderly and those who are immune compromised. To minister to the needs of those who are sick and quarantined. I'm finding ways for those in my church to minister in these times and I encourage you to do the same.

I'll leave you with the last few pages of the quotes I found on pilgrimage:

Pilgrimage

A few years ago I attend a retreat called Refine Retreat with my friend Bernice when she was visiting from England. The retreat was hosted by Kris Camealy. I first connected with Kris way back in 2011 when I joined her pre-launch team for her book "Come, Lord Jesus" and then used her book for my Advent art prompts that year. This past summer, in advance of her annual Refine Retreat, Kris asked former retreat attendees to submit art or writing for the 2020 retreat theme of pilgrimage to be used in her Refine magazine.

It's a great topic, so I decided to spend time last summer studying what God's Word says about pilgrims and pilgrimage. I then made a journal to create art from my study and reading. Kris chose one of the my pages to use in her retreat magazine. It's a great magazine with lots of art and articles from a variety of creatives. 

You can get the Refine Journal here:

I made a concertina book (also known as an accordion journal) to hold my pilgrimage art. It included a little booklet of lined paper on the back inside cover to hold my notes.

The piece that was included in the magazine was taken from this page of my journal.

In my next post I'll dig into what I learned and share more views of my journal.

Unfortunately, with all that is going on in our world with Corona virus, Kris has had to cancel her retreat, which was to be held next weekend.

Around here, we are preparing for 3-4 weeks of social distancing to prevent the spread of Corona Virus which entered our state on Monday. Schools are closed for at least the next three weeks. We are holding our church service this morning, but then will not have a public gathering for worship until Good Friday. At least that's our plan. We'll wait and see how well social distancing keeps the virus from spreading too rapidly. I have not had much time for art in the past few weeks, so I guess this forced slow down could have some advantages in that arena. 

I hope and pray that  all of you who follow my blog are doing well, and that you and your families are safe and healthy. Blessings to all of you on this Sunday morning. :)

A great read for Advent or any time:

S & T for Living Your Word of the Year

As I contemplated what to do for my art journal pages for the letters S and T, I decided to just play with some of my favorite art techniques. I am still being plagued with this on-again, off-again creative slump I have been battling since March. So play seems to be the best remedy right now!

My word for S is Sabbath. No matter how busy life gets I try hard to protect Friday as my Sabbath day. It gets hard at times, especially when I am busy. This Sabbath discipline has been a much needed lifeline to rest, to re-energizing, and to staying connected to God over the years.

For my page I cut letters out of painted papers. It's such a relaxing activity!

For the letter T I chose the word thankful. And for my page I did some collage with squares of painted papers in a grid pattern. Another very relaxing activity!

There are only 6 more letters and then our A-Z challenge and 2019 will be over. I am currently one letter behind and hope to get caught up by the time the next letter appears on the calendar. This has been a fun way to keep my focus on my word of the year and my goals for it.

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: www.newlycreative.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

J & K ~ A Joyful Journey to Keep My Word in Focus

A Joyful Journey to Keep My Word in Focus

My word for 2019 is sacred. I am on a journey this year that is a continuation of a journey I have been on for the past 31 years - becoming a sacred vessel to be used by God for His purpose and His glory. Being sacred is about being formed in Christ-likeness with our whole being - heart, mind, soul and body. For years now I have adopted Robert Mulholland's definition of spiritual formation as somewhat of a guideline for my life. His definition is: Spiritual formation is the process of being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others.

• Process reminds me that life is a journey. Growing in maturity in life and Christ-likeness is a life-long journey. A journey of growing and changing and moving toward wholeness.

• Being formed in the image of Christ reminds me that my whole being is being transformed by interaction with the Spirit, and I have a responsibility to be ever-growing in practices that enable me to die to my false self and continually grow into the new self that I am in Christ.

• For the sake of others reminds me that I do not live for myself but for Christ who lived a life of love and sacrifice for the sake of others. 

 Picking my word for this year aligned with these reminders and is helping me "be formed" as I try to live in a manner of sacredness, continually offering my life for God's purpose and glory. 

Our Living Your Word group is using A-Z words to help us focus on living out our word for the year. (You can find info about the group at the end of this post.) Quite by accident, my words for J and K ended up being connected. I was working on a blog post for my J word - joyful - while at the same time I was starting to determine my K word and work on my art journal page. I guess it's not too surprising that my words are connected since this is after-all a journey.

It actually began back in January when I read a quote in a blog post for a health challenge I was participating in.

"Impatience stems from an anxious heart. And anxiety is the adversary of wholeness." ~Alisa Keaton

So as I thought about this quote a passage from Philippians 4 came to mind. I dug into the passage a bit and then decided to memorize it. I've been doing so ever since, which is no small feat for me. I have always struggled with memorizing verses, let alone a passage. But I really wanted this passage to be one that helped me keep my mind focused on prayer and gratitude and the peace of God that results from it.

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7 NRSV

Since January I have come back to this passage repeatedly to study and reflect on. Here are some of my study notes and thoughts n this passage.

You can faintly see a map hidden under the gesso on the background of this page. As I turned the page to think about a word for "k", I noticed that the reverse side of the map had the word "anchor" on it. I thought about how an anchor keeps a boat securely in place. God's Word and prayer serve as anchors to keep our faith securely in place. One of the threads that appeared for me in the Philippians 4 passage was that the way to keep anxiety or worry at bay is to keep at prayer. It's so simple, yet I always seem to forget. Prayer and staying in God's Word keep me secure in Him. 

"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you." Isaiah 26:3

Prayer in Philippians 4 and a mind that is steadfast - stayed on, kept focused on God results in the peace of God - perfect peace - shalom shalom. God's perfect peace is whole, complete, sacred.

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: www.newlycreative.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

It's Been A While...

It's been so long since I posted here on my blog. I've missed it, but the time of silence has been good. I have been in a place of drought creatively and it has impacted art journaling as well as my words. My words are such a big part of my creativity. 

This creative slump has been building over much of this year. It's not as if I haven't made art, it's just that I seem to have been on something like auto-pilot. I want to make art and write blog posts and interact on social media, and in my art groups. I have the urge and the desire to be creative, but the spark is just not there. I find myself losing focus and interest soon after I begin to make art or write. I sit and stare blankly at the page. So, I pushed through my Lent Words challenge, making pages for the words, but not really feeling connected to it. And I almost made it...but in mid-April even auto-pilot stopped.

It's frustrating when creativity - art and writing - is the thing that gives you energy, yet it is the very thing that eludes you. I've done the things that usually jumpstart my creativity: I've made a journal, made a bunch of background pages, tried painting papers, even tried cleaning my studio. And now it's May. May is always busy with the end of the school year. And busy is usually the enemy of my creative energy. So as I was writing in my journal the other day I was reminded of a word I explored a number of years ago. Liminal Space. (I wrote about it back in 2013: Here)

I have this habit I do periodically called "looking back in order to move forward". It's one of the benefits I find from writing regularly in journals. I look back over a few months and try to see if there are any patterns. Is there something that keeps popping up that may be an indicator that God wants to use it to form me in a deeper way. I tend to think of the spiritual life, and God's formation of us, like an onion. The layers are peeled back and the growth and the forming goes deeper and deeper as we mature spiritually. So while I may get frustrated at first when it seems like I'm going through something I thought I got through, it helps to remember it may just be a time that this particular issue or life lesson is forming deeper within me, enabling me to grow more in Christ's likeness.

This is where liminla space comes into the picture. From my blog post back in 2013:

"Most of us have not had much training in waiting...Richard Rohr calls this waiting place "liminal space"; liminal comes from the Latin word limina, which means threshhold." (Ruth Haley Barton) Quoting Richard Rohr:

"Liminal space, the place of waiting, is a unique spiritual position where human beings hate to be but where the Biblical God is always leading them. It is when you have left the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are finally out of the way. It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer..."

Late last month I simply decided to embrace the liminal space, knowing that this too shall pass. I won't always be in this place of silence in between the comfortable and the not knowing. Embracing it allows it to become sacred space. It is in the silence that we can best hear God's voice.

And you know, as I have released struggling against the silence over the past few weeks, I'm feeling creative again - the words are returning and finding their way back onto my art pages and this blog.

Due to this creative slump I fell behind on a few letters in our A - Z inspiration challenge in the Living Your Word group. Here are my H and I pages. Bernice, Valerie and I all chose to use the word "how" for our H word and explore how we are doing with our journey with our Word of the Year. My word this year is sacred, and the main focus for me this year is restoring health ~ eating better, losing weight, and moving more ~ seeing my body as sacred as well as my heart, mind and soul. 

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: www.newlycreative.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

Things I've Learned: February 2019 Issue

For some reason I cannot pin down, I've been on a break from posting on my blog and Instagram. I felt a bit of a need to hibernate from words and posting. So I did. And it's okay. I have still made art though.

My word for 2019 is sacred. I chose that word because there are some areas in my life that need a renewed dedication to being used for God's purposes. As Christ's followers our calling is to live for Him in every way in every area of our life. Our life is then a journey toward living out Christ's life in us. It's a life long process. We don't change instantly and over time the transformation goes deeper and deeper.

Every year for the past four - five years I have had some type of health goal connected with my word of the year - eat better and exercise more make the list each year. But honestly, I haven't progressed far in either of those areas. A number of injuries with our parents this past year have motivated us to make some changes now and get healthy for the future. So I started this year with a different mindset and decided to study how God views our bodies in the Bible. 

Eight weeks into the new year, here are a few things I've learned so far:

• Changing habits is proving to be less difficult then I thought it would be. I think discovering more deeply how God views our bodies and health is changing how I view my relationship with food. Prayer has helped a lot as well. 

• Lots of little changes made consistently add up to big change. Last month I took The Little Way challenge, an online health challenge based on faith by Revelation Wellness. It gave me a good foundation for making little changes in how I eat and move. A big mindset shift was looking at food as substance or shadow foods. Shadow foods don't contribute anything nutritionally to your body and are empty calories.

• Cooking has always been a necessary chore for me...like doing laundry. It just has to be done! But, as we have made theses health changes I have enjoyed finding recipes to make our favorite foods healthier. I'm actually enjoying cooking!

• Last month I wrote about how I have discovered that making journals is a big part of sparking creativity for me (see this post). The problem is, I don't often fill them. So January's monthly journal is half full. I have been dedicated to rectifying that in February.

• I cannot paint objects, but I did find I can make them with scissors and painted paper! I have been studying the pages of a book called Cut Paper Pictures by Clover Robin. I follower her on Instagram and love what she does with cut paper collage. So I am practicing with guidance from her book.

• I still love the thrill of the hunt. I visited some book sales and estate sales in January and February. I was leafing through the pages of the recent Flea Market Home & Living magazine and ran across this great display of bird art. Turns out the art is pages from a book I had recently found and listed in my Etsy shop. I love finding creative ways people reuse, recycle and repurpose items!

That's it for my discoveries so far this year. I'll end with the most recent pages from my word of the year journal. In our Living Your Word 2019 group we are discovering words from A-Z that inspire us to live out our word of the year.

What have you learned lately? Feel free to share in the comments below. :)

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: www.newlycreative.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog