Waiting

Waiting. It's one of the hardest things we ever have to do. I think back to the times I've sat in a hospital waiting room with a family as they've awaited the news on the condition of their loved one. I think back to the time my wife and daughters went to Guatemala on a mission trip and I sat waiting in the airport lounge praying for their safe arrival. I also think of the many Christmases that I woke up early in the morning waiting for my parents to awake so I could tear into those beautifully wrapped packages. Waiting does not come easy for us.

Even though we have pithy little sayings like, "Good things come to those who wait," it doesn't get any easier. And yet it seems the majority of our lives are spent waiting on something else. "I can't wait until I finish school!" "I can't wait until the weekend!" "I can't wait until I retire!" But I've discovered that often times when we're focused on the object ahead of us we forget to enjoy what we have right now. We tend to wish our lives away, hoping for something better, when we should be enjoying what we have now.

Advent is about waiting. While everyone around us is focused on Christmas morning, we who celebrate Advent, are focused on the now. We, too, are waiting for Christmas but we do so by celebrating the NOW. For us Christmas is not the end, but the beginning. While everyone is scurrying around shopping we can slow down and enjoy the sights and sounds of the season. We wait expectantly, all the while enjoying the gifts that God has already given us.

While some are already reading the Christmas story we who celebrate Advent are waiting for Christmas by reading the prophecies of old. We are immersed in the stories of Isaiah and John the Baptist. We light candles to mark the time as we wait. We sing of the future while we enjoy the blessings of the present. Advent is about the future, and the past. The Birth of Christ and the return of Christ. The visions of old and the visions of the New Jerusalem. The life of darkness and the life lived in the Light.

Waiting is not a passive thing. Waiting is being actively engaged in the now while steadily looking to the future. The early believers thought that the return of Christ was eminent so they stopped doing. But the Apostles and Saints told us that we would have to wait. And while we wait we are to do the work of the Kingdom: feed the poor, heal the sick, and set the captives free. Time seems to fly when we are actively engaged in doing something while we wait.

During this Advent season learn the lesson of waiting. Learn to embrace patience and do the work of the Kingdom; pray, preach, live! Christmas is coming, but not before we have to wait.