Reflection
Advent is about patience. Advent is about waiting. Waiting goes against our expectation of an instant response. It is not popular especially now. We don’t like to wait for anything even in our spiritual lives. Yet, to quote Chardin, we need to “trust in the slow work of God.” Christmas will come. We will celebrate the birth of Jesus. But, first there must be the weeks of Advent to calm us, focus us, and remind us that the contemplative life does not come with batteries included.
Prayer
Come, Lord Jesus.
Action
How can I slow down during Advent? Can I make some quiet time for myself each day?
Suggested Reading
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from God.
Psalm 62:5
“Advent is a time of waiting for the Lord, who will visit us, in our own hearts. Let us wait for him!
Pope Francis
Those who do not hope cannot wait; but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Charles Spurgeon
Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be.
John Ortberg
Timing is so important! If you are going to be successful in dance, you must be able to respond to rhythm and timing. It’s the same in the Spirit. People who don’t understand God’s timing can become spiritually spastic, trying to make the right things happen at the wrong time. They don’t get His rhythm – and everyone can tell they are out of step. They birth things prematurely, threatening the very lives of their God-given dreams.
T. D. Jakes
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
Carl Sagan
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
T. S. Eliot
The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before… .What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.
Jan Richardson