Advent Week 3: Waiting
“Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts if John might be the Christ.” Luke 3:15
It’s no secret I spent much of my life waiting. Waiting for a husband. Waiting for babies. Waiting for contractors to show up. But just because I spent so much time waiting, doesn’t mean I always waited well.
Sometimes, I did. Sometimes, I trusted, keeping my eyes on the present instead of the future and drawing strength from the graces of the moment.
Other times, I doubted. I didn’t trust the goodness of God’s plans and spent so much time crying over what I didn’t have, that I forgot to see what I did have. As I did that, I missed things. I missed opportunities. I missed lessons. I missed graces. All because I wasn’t getting what I wanted when I wanted it.
We all do that. Waiting doesn’t come naturally to most of us. We don’t trust God’s plan. We don’t trust His timing. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, we want what we want now. Which means we miss what we have now. Or we reach for what’s not ours or we reach for things before it’s time. And as we reach, we stumble and fall.
So, God gives us seasons of waiting—opportunities to practice patience and learn to wait well. He does this for each of us throughout our lives. And He does this for the whole Church during Advent. As a Church, He invites us to practice waiting, so we can learn to do it well.
Every year, for four weeks, we wait with Israel for the promised Savior. While the world celebrates Christmas, we prepare for it. We dress our churches in purple and pink not green and red. And we recall, in God’s Word and our own private prayers, the longing Israel experienced for the Messiah, not the joy the of the Church in the promise fulfilled.
During Advent, we also remember that as a people we’re always waiting—not just for husbands or babies or jobs or houses or healing—but for the end, for Christ’s return, for God to all make all things new—a new heaven and a new earth—perfect, unbroken, whole. That is why we cry out for Him. That’s why we long for Him. Because only He can heal. Only He can stop the pain. And it won’t truly and fully happen until He comes again.
We have 13 days left of this Advent. Keep waiting. Prepare your homes. Prepare your hearts. But try to save some joy of Christmas for Christmas. And while you wait, invite Jesus into this moment. Find Him in this moment. Be where you are. In the waiting. And give thanks for what is. For this moment won’t come again. Which means, the graces being given to you today won’t come again.
Yesterday, you see, is gone, never to return. Tomorrow is not here yet and there is no guarantee it ever will be. But right now is here. Right now is guaranteed. Right now, God is speaking to you, calling you, providing for you, looking to you. He has work for you in this moment. He has healing for you in this moment. And the graces you need for both are here. In the waiting. In the not knowing. In the not having. In the not doing or not being or not understanding. The graces are in the uncertainty, the crazy, the chaos, and the exhaustion. Every grace you need to answer God’s call in this moment is being offered to you in this moment. But you have to say yes to that grace. You have to not be so focused on the waiting, on what’s to come, that you forget what is.
This is the secret to waiting well. This is what all my waiting has taught me: to not be so focused on the future that I miss the present. This is also what Advent can teach all of us. It’s a lesson in waiting. Which means it’s a lesson in living.
Questions for Reflection
1. How often do I struggle with patience? When do I struggle?
2. How has my inability to wait caused problems in my life?
3. What am I waiting for right now?
4. What am I being given right now?
5. How could what I am being given right now prepare me for that for which I am waiting?
6. What joys or treats or celebrations am I not enjoying now, so that I can enjoy them when Christmas comes?