This Advent I'm trying to live my life more fully in line with the true meaning of Christmas.  I'm trying to understand Jesus' coming more truthfully, and in order to do so I'm reflecting extensively on the lectionary readings, discussing their meaning with friends, and compiling a series of reflections on the meaning of those texts and posting them to the web.  You can find the audio versions of those reflections at www.benjaminasimpson.com under "writing," and the full text of each reflection will be featured at my blog, http://bensimpson.squarespace.com.

As I put together the Advent Project, I firmly believed that meeting with friends, reading biblical texts together, and publishing my reflections would be worthwhile.  But I didn't want to my Project to simply be about the transmission of information.  I wanted to create space for people to respond.  So, I'm inviting you to do three things:

1. Learn more about the Advent Conspiracy at http://www.adventconspiracy.org.
2. Learn more about Living Water International, the organization I'm supporting as part of the Advent Conspiracy.
3. And, lastly, consider helping me provide clean water for people in need this Christmas.

For the past two Christmases my wife Molly and I have given away an amount of money to people in need equivalent to what we have spent on Christmas gifts for friends and family.  This has meant spending more wisely on fewer gifts for family members, creating gifts for friends at home, and minimizing our compulsion to buy for the sake of buying a gift (in all likelihood a cute piece of junk for our kinda-friends who will probably regift what we give them anyway).  We have thought about Christmas differently.  I invite you to do so as well.

Join my family in supporting Living Water International this Christmas.  $500 will provide clean water and hygiene education for 50 people for a lifetime.

Thank you for your generosity, your love, and your willingness to follow Jesus.