If you’d like, you can let Jesus pace your holiday. You can allow the reality of his coming—his Advent—to walk you through the season. We must consciously own and direct our attention in a culture doing everything it can to keep us from just that:

Comer meets with John Ortberg, a California-based pastor and writer, who shares a story about Dallas Williard, who was a philosopher and spiritual leader at USC:The intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from them. It wasn’t the response he expected, but it was—and continues to be—the answer he needs.Too often we treat the symptoms of toxicity in our modern world instead of trying to pinpoint the cause. A growing number of voices are pointing at hurry, or busyness, as a root of much evil. right now everything is being intentionally designed for distraction and addiction. Because that’s where the money is.

Addiction is the relentless pull to a substance or an activity that becomes so compulsive it ultimately interferes with everyday life. By that definition, nearly everyone I know is addicted in some measure to the Internet. Keep your phone off until after your morning quiet time. Let prayer set your emotional equilibrium and Scripture set your view of the world. Begin your day in the spirit of God’s presence and the truth of his Scriptures. The word rule comes from the Latin word regula, which literally means ‘a straight piece of wood,’ (think: ruler), but it was also used for a trellis. 10 Think of Jesus’ teaching on abiding in the vine from John 15, one of his most important teachings on emotional health and spiritual life ….What’s underneath every thriving vine? A trellis. A structure to hold up the vine so it can grow and bear fruit. It hasn’t always been this way, even in America. Yes, our nation is a social experiment built around the pursuit of happiness. But it wasn’t until quite recently that we redefined happiness as making lots of money and owning lots of stuff. Implementing a practice of simplicity is easier in some instances that others. Truly observing the Sabbath, for example, means turning off the phone and the TV and spending one day a week on being present, grateful, and narrowing our focus down to what truly matters to us.

Success!

I do wish he had helped me a little in the middle. I had a quam bc he talks about external noise and internal noise (ch. on silence and solitude). My issue is that he said the inner noise is quite difficult to silence but we must silence the inner noise and then he just moves on. Nothing about how to do that. I am finding that his practice later on in the slowing chapter and aiding in this process. But i wish he had told me that in the earlier chapters. Because what you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.”