The Ripple Effect Advent Devotional: A Daily Pause for Light

Imagine what a five-minute pause each day during Advent could do to the busyness and chaos you experience both internally and externally. In this new Advent devotional, join The Ripple Effect podcast host, Lyndi Lee Markus, as well as many other Navigators voices for 30 days to help you slow down and reflect through this Advent devotional mini series, “A Daily Pause for Light.”

The Ripple Effect podcast is a ministry of The Navigators Train-Develop-Care department. This podcast offers micro-retreats of 10 minutes or less, with things you can do almost anywhere to connect right where you are with God.

An Introduction to Advent

Episode Transcript from The Ripple Effect Advent Devotional: A Daily Pause for Light Series

“Welcome to The Ripple Effect Advent Devotional: A Daily Pause for Light. I’m Lyndi Lee Markus, a spiritual director and writer with The Navigators.

What if our anticipation of Christmas impacted us so profoundly that expectant faith overflowed in our lives throughout the year? As we count down the days til the holiday, we are committing to a rhythm: to pause for just five minutes each day to celebrate the themes of Advent — hope, peace, joy, and love. We’ll explore them through Scripture and reflective practices that will deepen your discipleship and your daily walk with Jesus.

What is Advent?

The season of Advent is a consistent reminder of the light of Christ in our world. You might want to use an Advent wreath during these reflective moments, and we’ll remind you to light the candles each day. If you don’t have a traditional wreath, feel free to light any candle to remind you of the light of Christ that is with you, in you, and for you.

Isaiah 9:2,3-6,7 from the New International Version: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you . . .For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.”

Advent is a time of sacred suspense — waiting for the fulfillment of things God has promised, and remembering that God’s people have always been people who wait. The hope of the Israelites, God’s original chosen people, rested in prophecies that God would bring a redeemer, a messiah, who would right the wrongs of the world.

They waited millennia to see those prophecies fulfilled. When Jesus came, the Kingdom He brought with Him turned expectations on their heads. He was the Messiah, the Son of God who would restore the poor, broken, and oppressed; who would redeem a relationship between God and humankind, but it just didn’t look how Israel expected, so they almost missed it.

Our hope for the future — our salvation, the wholeness we believe Jesus came to restore–rests entirely on His promise that He will return. We live between his first coming and his second coming. We still see oppression, brokenness, pain and hardship. Redemption is not yet complete.

So, like the Israelites of ancient times, we’re still waiting. Our eyes are still fixed on a coming Savior. During Advent, the season of the in-between, we pause on purpose. We remember the light we wait and hope for, and we intentionally watch for how salvation and wholeness in the world is coming to be.

If that’s the big story, the metanarrative God is telling through His people right now and always, I wonder then what story our individual lives might tell through the ways we wait.

Reflection Questions for Advent

I’ll leave you today with a moment of silence to feel the suspense. What is it like for you to wait for Christmas or for God to work in your life? Where do you need light? In what ways are you still waiting for Jesus to be your Messiah?

Thanks for joining today’s Advent devotional. The Ripple Effect is a podcast ministry of The Navigators Train-Develop-Care department. The Daily Pause for Light series was developed as a Navigators Discipleship Tool.

Contact tdc@navigators.org for more information, and subscribe to this podcast to stay connected to these Advent moments to pause.”