A Reflection on Advent

Growing up, Advent was a major tradition in my family near Christmas. We’d light candles, sing hymns, and read Scripture together. Advent is a unique season because it allows us to look forward to Christ’s second coming as we look back at his birth. Lately, as I’ve observed and fallen in love with the community at Covenant, this time of waiting has become all the more precious.

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Jewish History is Our History

According to Sydney Teagarden, ‘23, as Christians, Jewish history is our history too. This is why her family has been part of the Messianic movement for about fifteen years. Teagarden describes Messianic Judaism as “ a movement of believers in Yeshua (Christ) who want to celebrate God’s salvific history leading up to Christ.” This is also why Teagarden has decided to share some of her experience with Jewish feast days on campus, giving Covenant students a chance to enter into this wider story of redemptive history.

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Finding What's Missing

As a senior, something I am noticing a lot on campus is a lack of contentment, both in my own daily life and in others. Personally, I have become unappreciative of my surroundings. I complain about how many core classes I have to take, or how time consuming homework is, or how I never have time to do the fun things I want to do.

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Pupusas, Atole de Elote, and Fellowship

In the fall of 2019 I moved onto Fourth North in Carter Hall, and met my three freshman roommates I would be sharing a 4-man with: Mally Bright, Becca Dillon, and Elysse Carrillo. Mally was from Alabama, Becca was from South Carolina, and Elysse was from Florida. Over the summer we had all met over facetime wherein we had the most awkward introductory conversation of all time, and Elysse and I really carried the conversation (characteristically Elysse or I would ask a generic stock question to the group, Mally would give a quick answer that ended in a joke, and Becca would say a few words that were muffled by her bad connection).

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Why You Should Care About Creative Nonfiction

In 1909, G. K. Chesterton published a short piece of writing in which he rails against philosophers or agents of productivity who cast judgement upon those who like to lay in bed. As a weary junior, I myself must confess that I enjoy the occasional midafternoon nap. However, each time I allow my weary eyes to close during the day, I wake up with overwhelming guilt for the time I wasted not being productive. If you are not familiar with Chesterton, he was an English author, philosopher, and comedic essay-writer. For the purposes of this article, we will use him as an example of a superb author of creative nonfiction.

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Creation and Stewardship of the Small Things

Coming to Covenant has reignited my interest in tiny critters, particularly insects. I would go look around at night to find moths flying around in the Mills stairwell and around the chapel building. I was always fascinated by them, but never got the chance to find any in the dense urban city that is Jakarta, where I’m from in Indonesia. This felt like the first opportunity I’ve had to witness how beautiful God’s creation is in all its glory, but it also brought me to introspection. How come I’ve only started to appreciate creation now? Has everything around me for every day that I’ve lived not come from God?

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Processing Grief

This feels vulnerable to write, but now that I have my name on a chapel slide about grief the secret is out: I am co-leading a grief group on campus. How I ended up here is a long story, but it involves the sudden and traumatic death of a close friend of mine during my senior year of highschool. Her death was excruciating — the reactions, words, and lack of support by those around me (especially those who were supposed to care) made the pain worse.

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Community is Hard, Community is Beautiful

While preparing to come to Covenant, I heard a lot about the community. So, when I came in, wide-eyed and innocent, I expected it to be something that just happened. It quickly became apparent that this would not be the case. I found myself alone in my room even at times when I wanted to be around others. I knew there were people around, but I didn’t know how to reach out to them. Because I’d heard so much about Covenant’s community, I hadn’t really considered I’d have to.

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Representation Matters

Earlier this year, Warner Brothers announced that they were currently developing a new Superman movie for the DC Cinematic Universe. JJ Abrams is set to produce it, and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates is also on board. This new film would replace Henry Cavill, who has been the latest actor to portray the character since his 2013 debut in Man of Steel. It’s ‘rumored’ that the new film will take a turn from the original comic storyline, and change some things to make the story feel more ‘modern.’ One of the biggest changes that WB announced was that the famous Clark Kent would now be black.

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