Sunday morning was a familiar scene after church. As a pastor, and ADHD-plagued extrovert, I was talking with people in the lobby after service and one of my awesome kids was done waiting on me. He came up and interrupted the conversation with the all too familiar question, “Dad, are you done yet?”
It’s easy as a parent to get frustrated, which I do often, but it was a great reminder that waiting doesn’t come naturally. It’s a learned behavior, and one our society runs from possibly more than any other virtue. The old saying “patience is a virtue,” might be true, but it has become increasingly unpopular in our busy world.
No place is that more obvious than during the short season from Thanksgiving to Christmas. As our calendars fill up with Christmas parties, special events, to-do lists, and extra activities, our lives feel like a frenzied rush. Ironically, the way of Jesus has been marked by something very different during this season.
Advent (the four Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas) is traditionally a season where we embrace waiting as a spiritual rhythm. The term “advent” comes from Latin and simply means “Arrival.” It’s meant to be a season where we slow down, and enter into the mindset of Israel in the Old Testament as they awaited the arrival of the coming Messiah. On this side of Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, it’s a time for us to live with the same anticipation for his second coming. It’s an opportunity to carve out time from the busy schedule and wait on the Lord.
It’s a time to proclaim Psalm 130:5, “I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope.”
Maybe this year instead of adding another party, you can take a day off for rest, for worship, and to embrace the great anticipation of the second coming of Christ. May we find hope in embracing the waiting.
The Pastor’s Place features columns written by a different area church leader each month. Call 940-728-8284 for more information.
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