Advent

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

We stand on the threshold of the Advent season, called to practice the pause, to savor the waiting, to patiently take this season day by day, step by step, even as the rest of the world races toward the finish line, tinsel and gift wrap trailing behind like a holiday parade float. This is a season that calls us to rest in the tension between darkness and light, between birth and death, between what is and what will be. It’s not easy, but if we are willing to venture onto this road less traveled, what we will find is the peace we have been seeking, the beauty of a world unseen, the joy that comes not from exterior trappings but from interior wisdom built around the One who is and was and is to come.

As we begin our journey, plunged into the darkness of the physical world around us, can we set our lives to a slower cadence, a sacred rhythm, God’s timing rather than the world’s? Can we hold a space — free of the holiday hysteria and pre-Christmas chaos — and allow the Light of God’s unconditional and eternal love to come to rest and grow in our hearts?

The world says, “Hurry! Decorate, shop, bake, wrap.” Advent says, “Stop! Look, listen, anticipate, pray.” Which will you choose? Put yourself in God’s presence today, even if only for five minutes, and wait there, knowing that God is with you today, tomorrow, always.

O come, o come, Emmanuel, God with us.