I hope you’ve been having a restful and reflective season. And, I realize that, for many of us, this has been a difficult season – whether simply feeling the weight of national and global tensions and tragedies, or the pain often borne uniquely in our immediate context.

I carried this paradox with me in my conversation with my dear friend Alexander John Shaia yesterday. It was our final Make Advent Great Again dialogue, and it’s too good not to share with you, here:

In this dialogue, we discuss:

• Embracing the gifts of radiant darkness
• Living now in the presence of the future
• Moving from ‘hope’ to conviction
• How to create space for Divine promise in your life on the other side of deconstruction
• The hidden wisdom of the early Jesus movement that can guide us to human transformation, whether you’re conventionally religious or not

Please give it a listen, and let me know what you think!

(*Christmastide is a season many aspiring Jesus-followers observe, which began on Christmas Eve and lasts until January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany. So even if you’re reading this after December 25, its message is still for you and right on time!)

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