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

 

The images that highlight the theme of each devotion are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

Say Yes gives you the mental and spiritual practices you need to enjoy your life again–and bring greater fullness than you could imagine before.

“My life doesn’t look anything like I wanted it to. How do I even keep going?” When the dreams for our life die, our vision of who we hoped to become often dies too. That’s when The Voice of Giving Up appears.

Visual artist and spiritual director Scott Erickson has had long midnight conversations with The Voice of Giving Up, and he knows how anxiety and depression make The Voice especially loud. But he’s discovered that our darkest moments are sometimes doorways to a deeper, more joy-filled journey of recovering who we are, why we’re here, and why the future bursts with possibilities if we are willing to say yes to life’s brightest gifts.

In Say Yes, Scott helps you learn how to reawaken your deepest desires, disempower your greatest fears, and identify the destructive narratives holding you back. Combined with Scott’s beautiful, thought-provoking illustrations, this is a profound exploration of beginning again after:

• Disappointment at how life is turning out
• Suspecting we are not prepared or smart enough
• Losing hope that change is possible and that pain can have a purpose

Take the first step to gain the gentle yet powerful tools you need, and say yes to what lies ahead today.