Announcing: An Unusual Advent Series


Hi Friends,

I’m planning something unusual for this Advent season.

For the last couple years, I’ve taken the weeks leading up to Christmas to stare with you into the passages of Scripture about Christ coming as a baby.

The birth of Christ is a storyline that’s rich in wonder. We could spend all 365 days of the year focusing on it and not exhaust all there is to see.

This year, I want to immerse us in this story once again…

But with an unusual twist.

I am writing an Advent series for those overcoming spiritual anxiety.

Spiritual anxiety? What the heck is that?

This is a phrase I’ve been using to describe the heaviness I have felt the Lord begin to lift off my shoulders this year. I didn’t realize I was carrying this — or at least couldn’t name it — until He began to lift the weight.

I began to see that while I had for years received much solid Bible teaching, it was often delivered with a quiet injection of spiritual anxiety.

I have heard from some of you who also experienced this in your own church context.

Jesus told us His yoke is easy, His burden is light. Spiritual anxiety has threads of heaviness and performance.

It can sound like a number of things:

Do more.
Give more.
Never enough.
You might miss out.
Hurry, hurry, hurry.

If this sounds familiar to you, there’s good news. Yes, there’s good news of great joy for us.

For unto us — the heavy laden with anxiety running through our veins — a baby is born. A Son is given.

In Matthew 11, Jesus calls to Himself all who want to be free:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

But this didn’t just begin when He was old enough to speak these words. It’s been His mission from the very beginning.

Through every detail of Advent, God is extending His hands to lift our heaviness.

So let’s go there.

For the next few weeks, let’s stand at the beginning of His story and peer into His life.

It’s here He lifts off our anxieties and gives us rest.

It’s here that we trade hurry, hurry, hurry for holy, holy, holy.

It’s here we quiet our souls, stand in awe of Him, and are healed.

–Anna

P.S. For me, this liberation from heaviness has brought easy sleep each night after years of struggle.

I’m praying that you might experience rest for your body, soul, and spirit on this journey, too.

See you next week.

Anna Blanc

I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.

Read more from Anna Blanc

Hi Friends, As the pastor shared from Exodus 32, painting the picture of the Israelites waiting nervously for Moses to return from his journey up the mountain, I began to see the scene in ways I hadn’t before. Here they are, in the middle of the wilderness. It has been weeks with no sign of their leader. Fear takes hold. They are distraught that God may have abandoned them. Left them for dead in the middle of this wasteland. They wake up in the morning, collect manna for the day’s...

Hi Friends, I’ve been thinking about faith. (Is there a more simple, yet complex topic?!) Here are a few lyrics I sang about this: There’s no formula to faith No saying words just the right way It’s birthed in the heart Reaching out for who You are Jesus commended the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8:40 as having true faith. This leads me to a question people have asked through the centuries: What is required to have true faith? It may help us to first look at what it’s not. Faith is...

“Look, Mom!” I was with my boys at their school orientation this past weekend. We had just left one of their classrooms and were on our way to the next, when my son faced me, pointing just beyond me. I turned to the side and found myself inches from a wall covered in lines and vibrant color. “Oh cool, honey!” It wasn’t till I reached where my son was standing a few feet back, that I noticed that the colors and lines were forming a word. It was the word JOY. As human beings, we love to see the...