It’s hard to believe, but here we are! The fourth week of Advent! In just a few days we will be celebrating the birth of our savior!

If you are like me, you might be thinking that Advent has gone by way too quickly! You are probably looking back and wondering where the time went, and wishing you had a few more days!

Maybe you feel your Advent didn’t go as you had hoped. Maybe you wished you would have spent more time on your spiritual growth, or more time creating memories with your loved ones.  Let’s face it, even if we started with a well thought out, organized plan for our Advent,  with all the hustle and bustle during this time of year, it’s super easy to lose sight of what it was!

The good news, it’s not too late!  We can use these last few days to, “go away to a quiet place”, and reflect on Christ’s coming into our lives;  as our infant Savior,  at the end of time, and also how He comes into our lives each day. This fourth week of Advent is the perfect time to pause and reconnect with your hopes and desires for this Advent season.

I like to think of the fourth week as our Advent intermission. Not that we will step out of Advent at all, on the contrary, we will step back and take a breather from the world; entering more fully into the Advent experience. The fourth week of Advent is like an intermission, strategically inserted into an exciting theatrical production.

During the play, we get so caught up in the experience that we barely notice the time passing, sometimes we are even surprised to find that when  intermission arrives, we have been perched intently on the edge of our seat! The pause in the production is a welcome break. We look at it as an opportunity to stand up, stretch and refocus. We take advantage of the lull in the action, to reconnect with our companions, and talk about what we have just experienced. In addition, a well timed intermission gives the audience an opportunity to reflect on the first part of the story, rest, and prepare for the conclusion of the production.

If we choose to take advantage of the opportunity, the fourth week of Advent offers us that same opportunity to pause, ponder, and prepare. We can use the intermission to reflect on our experiences so far; perhaps discuss our thoughts with loved ones, and make some adjustments if we need to. Pausing during the fourth week of Advent can help fuel our fire, and prepare us for the coming Christmas celebration, that can last for twelve days!

This week, let’s press pause on the demands of the world, bring it all in and breathe. Take the time to review the past three weeks. How did it go? Are there any unmet human or spiritual goals that you’d like to focus on this week?  If so, what are they and how will you accomplish them?

If a stranger came into our homes this week, would he know what we are preparing for?

By inserting an Advent intermission, we can pause, and reflect on where we have come from and how we can finish this Advent and Christmas season well.