The Season of Promise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've been flicking through the ads on television lately and it\u2019s hard not to notice how glittering everything is.\u00a0 The airwaves are filled with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2013\/12\/the-season-of-promise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Season of Promise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've been flicking through the ads on television lately and it\u2019s hard not to notice how glittering everything is.\u00a0 The airwaves are filled with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2013\/12\/the-season-of-promise\/\" 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{"id":512,"date":"2013-12-11T13:35:04","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T20:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/?p=512"},"modified":"2013-12-11T13:35:04","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T20:35:04","slug":"the-season-of-promise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2013\/12\/the-season-of-promise\/","title":{"rendered":"The Season of Promise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve been flicking through the ads on television lately and it\u2019s hard not to notice how glittering everything is.\u00a0 $\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

The airwaves are filled with commodities that promise happiness, like toothpaste that will put the sparkle of Christmas into our smile, cosmetics that will add luster to our appearance. Even financial companies get into the act urging us to buy insurance, bonds, stocks, and investments as a pathway to some sort of fiscal nirvana.<\/p>\n

Children see us coming home with bags and boxes. They see us filling up the fridge with special foods they don\u2019t see the rest of the year. It all looks so external \u2013 like we\u2019re elevating the material world. And for some people, perhaps that is all that is happening. A guilt-free time of year to indulge.<\/p>\n

But what if this time of year, with all its preparations, is actually an exercise in something much greater? What if the external appearances and the effort that we put into all of that is actually a way of implanting the power of belief.<\/p>\n

The weeks leading to Christmas are really a time to prepare the table of our consciousness.<\/p>\n

When I think about it this way, all the time and energy makes sense. The question I need to ask myself is: what am I waiting for? And what am I prepared to do to pave the way to receive the miracle that I know is promised?<\/p>\n

For me, I\u2019m preparing to see family and friends and sharing laughter and love. When I realize that this is what I\u2019m \u201cwaiting for\u201d, then I am more aware of every action I can choose to take to pave the way to that experience.<\/p>\n

Now the external is a beautiful reflection of what already lies within, and the waiting and the time and the preparation becomes a living meditation preparing the way for the miracle that our consciousness knows is already present.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"