Read more
From celebrated artist-storyteller Scott Erickson: 25 days of heart-stirring images and thought-provoking meditations to rekindle the wonder of God-with-Us in this Advent season. Honest Advent illuminates the astonishing truth that the God who showed up in the hardest parts of our humanity is still doing so today.
About the author
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 multi-media storytelling piece "Say Yes: A Liturgy of Not Giving Up on Yourself," and is the coauthor of
Prayer: Forty Days of Practice and
May It Be So: Forty Days with the Lord's Prayer. Scott is most loved by his wife, Holly, and their three children in Austin, TX.
Summary
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
Additional text
In this personal and deeply felt collection, Scott Erickson offers a thoughtful, contemplative exploration of the wonder hidden just beyond the popular portrayal of the Christmas narrative. Through twenty-five images and essays, Erickson illuminates a deep and personal appreciation of the central story in the Christian tradition and approaches it, not as a creed to be accepted or even a question to be answered, but rather as a mystery to be explored and embraced.
