The Season of Advent

I'm not very good at waiting. Truth be told, I'm an incredibly impatient person. If I see something I want, I just go buy it. It drives my wife crazy, especially because when it comes to the Christmas season, it's hard for me to give her any suggestions because I have already bought what I wanted.

I think that's why I both appreciate and am frustrated by the season of Advent.

It is a time when society pushes us to do more and more. Think about all the things and activities most of us do during Christmas--Church programs (adult and kids), class or age-level parties, shopping for family and friends, work related gatherings, decorating our houses to compete with our neighbors, traveling all over the place to visit friend and relatives, and other countless tasks. We are pushed and pulled on every side to do more, give more, spend more, travel more--in short to be continuously busy.

Does this sound like a time when we can wait well?

Yet the Christian understanding of Advent is much more about slowing down and waiting. It is a time of pregnant expectation--of lives filled with hope at the promise of the expected arrival of the Christ child.

Obviously, we live on this side of Christmas. We know the story and know that the Christ child did come. But, even as we are in the midst of this Advent season, are we still able to patiently wait for Christ to reveal himself to us on his timetable, rather than ours? Are we able to still wait expectantly, knowing that not only that Christ will come, but that his coming will bring light and hope to a world that seems mired in darkness and despair?

My hope this Advent season is to learn to wait better, and in so doing, to re-discover the Christ of Christmas.