Week 1: HOPE

Advent is a season of waiting during the darkest time of year.

Do we embrace this season of waiting? Or do we try and skip straight to the celebration of Christmas? We have a tendency to become too busy to wait - we want to get to the party! Usually we spend this time of year battling the darkness with fairy lights, decorations, hustle and bustle, celebrations, cards, packages and bows. We binge watch Hallmark movies while eating Christmas cookies and drinking hot chocolate and feel the warm fuzzies when Linus recites scripture or the Grinch's heart grows three sizes. While none of these are bad things, we often find ourselves overstimulated and exhausted and it becomes easy to miss God.

Not this year. This year is different.
God has a different plan. He has put a kibosh on our shenanigans.
What a blessing! What an opportunity! Come, Emmanuel! Have your way in us!

It's extra challenging to wait in the tension of Advent this year.
We're already so tired of waiting...
For society to open back up.
For the Pandemic to end.
To be reunited with loved ones.
To not have to wear a mask.
For a haircut.
For the kids to go back to school, for the love of all that is holy!
To go back to church.
To go back to work.
To go back to school.
For anything resembling normal.
For God to tell us what is normal?
For God to tell us what is the "New Wine"?
We wait.

We are not very good at waiting well. We live in a microwave society, where we can get immediate answers to any question we have on whatever device is closest to hand. We can stream the latest movies while we order items online for same day delivery. Society has indoctrinated us to believe we can have whatever we want, and we can have it right now! It's not surprising we have a hard time waiting.

The lyrics of O Holy Night imply long, pining waiting. Waiting for rescue. Waiting for Light to come into the darkness. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Longing and pining for things to change. Sound familiar? However, God does not think like we think, His ways are not our ways. He is not a microwave God. Oh sure, He does miracles and can change things in an instant. He's God. He can do what He wants. But He doesn't view time like we do - scripture says a blink of an eye is a thousand years to Him. Waiting is not a big deal for Him. He waited 40 years while the Israelites wandered around in the wilderness to get their act together, and it was roughly 400 years between Malachi at the end of the Old Testament and the appearance of John the Baptist in the New Testament, just sayin'...

We forget that there is much good and purpose in waiting. In the waiting is where we build character and find hope.

Waiting well is active. There is work to be done. Like the parable of the ten virgins or the men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, we must prepare in the waiting.

What is involved in the preparation of waiting?

As we wait, we must learn to give up our control, our wants and our desires so that we can embrace God's plans for us. He has plans to give us a hope and future.

We trust God as we press into relationship with Him. We look back to His faithfulness in history and in our own lives and embrace Him in the now as the anchor of our souls. We nurture the present moment, trusting that God is causing all things to work together for the good of those who love Him, even when we see no evidence, resisting the urge to take matters into our own hands. Fear is an enemy to waiting - it tries to push us into taking control, leading us astray - sometimes down destructive and damaging paths to ourselves and others.

It’s easier with a friend. We wait with God, and we wait with those around us. Think about what Mary, mother of Jesus, did when she found out she was pregnant. Did she stay home by herself? No, she went to stay with Elizabeth, someone else who knew a little something about unusual pregnancies. They waited out the fulfillment of the promise together. Waiting is easier when we have someone alongside us, cheering us on, reminding us of God’s grace and purpose and challenging us to not take things into our own hands.  

The people of Jesus’ time hoped for the Savior that they had been promised. Hope was their anchor just as it is ours. We too hope for the Savior of the World, especially during times of uncertainty in our lives. We can wait because we have hope. During Advent we take time to remember how to wait and hope in Him. To remember that He is Emmanuel, God with us. To remember that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us! To remember that He has come to bring His kingdom to bear on earth. We hope in Him and we fear not because He has overcome the world! In these uncertain times, we can trust Him. We can wait on Him, with repentance, with trust, with grace, in community and with HOPE. He is the Hope of the world.

We encourage you to discuss, ponder, and/or journal the following.