From Advent to Epiphany: A Call to Discipleship

Introduction

Sometimes life feels overwhelming and chaotic. Sometimes we veer off course, neglecting our most important relationship with Jesus. We may feel out of control, wonder how to get back on track, and how to draw closer to our Creator and Savior.

The liturgical calendar provides a way to get back on track, a way to reorder our habits. It does not matter your denomination; the liturgical calendar offers all of us this opportunity to reorder our lives around Jesus. Will you join me on a spiritual Christmas journey, a journey of recentering our hearts and minds on Jesus, a journey starting in Advent and ending on Epiphany?

The book of Colossians provides a unique lens for this wonderful time of year. Paul grounds his letter in the sovereign and glorious nature of Jesus. And as we reflect on the book of Colossians during Christmas, we are invited to slowly ponder the incarnation, our glorious God who shed the heavens for a stable, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.

This Christmas devotional combines theological insight and an invitation into spiritual formation, a combination Paul himself uses to teach the Colossians. Paul loves the Colossians. He desires the Colossians to be mature in Christ. This profound letter methodically invites the Colossians into continuous transformation in Christ, a transformation that ripples across all areas of life.

As a student at Fuller Seminary, some of my most transformative classes include what Fuller calls formation classes. In these classes, I have learned to abide in the One who most loves me. I have learned the importance of spiritual practices such as gratitude, prayer, solitude, stewardship, and community. Paul invites Jesus’s followers to live into these practices, to live a life rooted in Christ.

Paul also invites Jesus’s followers to reach outward in mission toward others. The book of Colossians invites us into discipleship, to love God and love others. Jesus calls us to be rooted in Him while also reaching out in love toward others. Jesus calls us to be disciples making disciples, Jesus’s followers making Jesus’s followers.

Come, let us step into the liturgical calendar and reorient our lives around Jesus. Come, let us behold the wonder of Christmas and be transformed by the One who most loves us.