Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now Spiral-Bound | October 20, 2020

Scott Erickson, Morgan Harper Nichols (Foreword by)

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From celebrated artist-storyteller Scott Erickson: 25 days of heart-stirring, Scripture-inspired images and thought-provoking meditations to rekindle the wonder of God-with-us in this Advent season.

In a world that's difficult to make sense of, and a season that's so often overtaken by consumerism, here you'll find heart-stirring illustrations and thought-provoking meditations designed to show you the raw, powerfully sacred story of Christmas in a new light.

Has the joy of the holiday season become painfully dissonant with the hard edges of life? Do you feel weary from the way Christmas has become a polished, predictable brand? You aren't alone. For too many of us, Christmas has lost its wonder. What if we stopped treating the Christmas story as something that happened a long time ago and started believing that it's a story that's still happening today?

From celebrated artist and storyteller Scott Erickson comes Honest Advent, 25 days of illustrations and meditations that will help you rekindle the wonder of this season. Honest Advent creates a space for you to encounter the Incarnate Christ in unexpected places: like a pregnancy announcement in an era of political unrest and empirical bloodshed, the morning sickness of a Middle Eastern teenager, and the shocking biology of birth that goes far beyond the sanitized brand of Christmas as we know it today.

Within the pages of Honest Advent, Erickson teaches us the valuable lessons he's learned about:

  • Finding hope and light in the darkest winters
  • What it means to embrace the unexpected
  • How God uses everyday vulnerability to help us understand ourselves, and our faith, better

Through powerful benedictions, prayers, and questions for honest reflection, you'll discover how the wonder of God-with-Us is still happening today: in your unexpected change of plans, your unaccomplished dreams, your overcrowded lodging, and your humble stories of new beginnings.

Praise for Honest Advent:

"Scott Erickson's beautifully crafted book helped me see God-with-Us with fresh eyes. Honest Advent is no shallow seasonal gift book; it's an invitation to explore the divine flourishes of everyday human vulnerabilities. A transformative read, regardless of the time of year."

--Jonathan Merritt, author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch

"Beautiful. Evocative. A wake-up call to the mystery of life."

--John Mark Comer, author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Publisher: HarperCollins
Original Binding: Paperback
Pages: 224 pages
ISBN-10: 0310361877
Item Weight: 0.6 lbs
Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
As a follower of Jesus who has spent the majority of my professional life (thirty years) working alongside my Jesus-following, Jewish wife within very dark, hostile Islamic regimes, we have celebrated many Christmas/Hanukkah seasons hidden away with curtains drawn and doors locked, lighting candles and reading the Scriptures. If Honest Advent had been available then, I would have handed out the book to the Muslim community and walked through the season with them. What a beautiful, timely work of art!

Scott Erickson is a touring painter, performance storyteller, and creative curate who mixes autobiography, biblical narrative, and visual aesthetics that speak to our deepest experiences. He is currently touring his multimedia storytelling piece "Say Yes: A Liturgy of Not Giving Up on Yourself" and is the author of Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-With-Us Then, Here, and Now. Scott is most loved by his wife, Holly, and their three children in Austin, Texas.