Make space in your schedule and your life for an Advent guide like this one or another one you choose and invite a few friends, your family, your Life Group, or coworkers to join you. May God remind you of his love and bring you fresh ways to experience him.

I always wanted to be a good Christian, a good parent, and a good wife. Those three things were very important to me. I truly did desire to walk with him, but I thought that you had to do everything by yourself. So my walk was like a yo-yo, constantly up and down. Be strong, put on a happy face, act like everything is fine and mask anything that isn’t; living a life of religion has all these rules of do’s and don’ts.

There is a psalm that begins, “I waited patiently for the Lord, he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1). What follows is a celebration of God’s goodness after a season in a “desolate pit” and “muddy clay.” It’s a psalm that David Sheets has come to understand deeply.