This past Sunday at church, our worship band kicked off our service (and ended it) with a spirited rendition of “Go, Tell it on the Mountain”. As we sang and clapped along and giggled at Henry’s dance moves, I found myself asking this question – “What if we did go tell it on the mountain?”

I’ve been thinking about this all week as I’ve walked through our advent devotional and as my family prayed in the chapel with others in our church on Tuesday night. This is the season of hope and joy and yet we can get so wrapped up in the ways of the world that we forget that we know the source of the hope and joy that so many are craving.

What if we were vigilant about using our gifts and platforms to tell the story of the baby who came to save the world?

What if we engaged more with our neighbors than with strangers on the internet?

What if we used our social media to share what God is teaching us during Advent instead of sharing a quippy meme about inflation and the supply chain issues?

What if we served those in need in our communities instead of serving ourselves with more Christmas treats? (That one hurt, not gonna lie!)

My point is this – those who claim Christ are quick to call out the ways that the world is waging war on the true meaning of Christmas and what I’m challenging us to think through is how we might be feeding into that war instead of showing the world who Jesus is through the way we love one another?

How can we be a small piece of tangible hope to someone feeling hopeless this Christmas?

Let’s not just stand and sing these songs in our churches this Christmas but let’s step into the places and spaces where God has given us influence and use it for the sake of the gospel.

I want to leave you with an excerpt from a letter I wrote to our church family in our advent devotional for this year.

This is a season of waiting. The thing about Advent that I love is that it reminds our hearts that our waiting for Jesus’ return should be an active season of waiting. Like the 40 weeks leading up to a woman giving birth to her baby, there are preparations in her heart and home to make space for this new addition to her family. Expectantly waiting for Jesus’ return gives us the space to prepare our hearts and to vigilantly pray for others to come to faith in Jesus. This is a season of waiting but in this season, I pray that our hearts are bent to a posture of praying on our knees instead of sitting back on our heels – that we would believe in the promises of God so much so that it propels us forward in faithfulness to Jesus.