...wait

Silently now I wait for Thee,

Ready, my God, Thy will to see;

Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!

--Clara H. Scott, 1895

Wait.                                    Wait.                                    Wait.                                    How hard is that for you? For me, and for most of us, waiting is nigh to impossible. While waiting for no discernible reason is infuriating, we are not even very good at waiting for reasons we comprehend and support. Good things may come to those who wait, but instant gratification comes to those who grab.

But our impatience is not just annoying to those around us (mothers and teachers, can I get an ‘Amen’?). It can also cheat us of the reward of hearing --- really hearing ---what someone has to say. Wait to see what God has to say; it may not be spoken on your time, but on God’s. Sit with  silence; sit in expectation. Don’t miss the message because of your impatience.

Wait.                                    Wait.                                    Wait.

...it's independence day!

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.

Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever, now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

---Charles Wesley, 1744

Advent is all about…well, you know…hope, peace, joy, and love, right? This hymn says Advent is all about…freedom…deliverance…a kingdom of grace. A topsy-turvy kingdom ruled by a child-king, reigning not over us, but in us. Free from what, we may wonder? We are living in the USA, as free as any people in the world. But there are bars that imprison us in a narrow world of small expectations and low risks. We are prisoner to our fears and sins, allowing them to hold us back from full participation in Christ’s kingdom of grace. In so many ways, we are far from free.

But the reign of the Christ Child? All about the freedom, my friends. In this kingdom, we are beckoned, day by day, to venture beyond the limits we set for ourselves and each other. In this kingdom there is no place for our small-minded fears and doubts.

Talk about your revolution….it’s independence day!

...it's Sunday...but Monday's coming

Soar we now where Christ has led, following our exalted Head;

Made like Him, like Him we rise; ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

Alleluia!

---Charles Wesley, 1739

Here we are at Easter, the simplest day of the year to follow Jesus! Soaring where Christ has led, rising like him…feels pretty wonderful, right? And we need a day like Easter, because the rest of the year is sure to follow. There was a popular poster when I was younger (Kids, we used to unroll these big paper pictures with groovy sayings on them and hang them on our bedroom walls! They were like the memes of a bygone generation!) that featured a cross dramatically backlit, with the text, “It’s Friday…but Sunday’s coming!” Well, I need a poster (but I’d just as soon have a good meme) that says It’s Sunday! …but Monday’s coming. #wompwomp.” We live in a Monday world, friends, where the cross and grave, and busyness and inattention, and a hundred tiny everyday cruelties are always with us. We need a little Easter every now and then. We are promised that if we follow Christ by owning the cross, and the grave, that we will also own the skies with him.

Made like you, to follow you, we turn with expectation toward a future that includes the cross, the grave…and the skies. Alleluia!

...a whole lot of light

Heavy clouds that block the moonlight now begin to drift away.
Diamond brilliance through the darkness shines the hope of coming day.
Christ, the morning star of splendor, gleams within a world grown dim. 
Heaven's ember fans to fullness; hearts grow warm to welcome him.
---Mary Louise Bringle, 2005

Waiting is so hard. The smallest sign can be enough to keep you hanging on.

When you are sitting in the dark, even a tiny glow looks like a whole lot of light. Day is breaking...can you feel it?

We wait with expectation for the dawning of light in our world.

...a not yet world

You come, O Lord, with gladness, in mercy and goodwill,
to bring an end to sadness and bid our fears be still.
In patient expectation we live for that great day
when your renewed creation your glory shall display.
--- Paul Gerhardt, 1653

We live in a 'not yet' world. It is easy to look around and see that things are not as they should be. There is pain, disease, systemic failure; there is evil, cruelty, apathy, human weakness. There are a few with way too much, and way too many with way too little.

Our world does not reflect its Creator. Not yet.

But part of the Advent waiting we do, in addition to looking forward to observing the birth of the Babe in the manger, is looking forward in eager anticipation to the time when God's dream for this world and the reality of this world become one. This, too, is Advent.

Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together.

Revealed in its season

As first time homeowners in Atlanta many years ago, Henry and I pulled up a dead bush that looked like a bundle of kindling from a front flowerbed, and threw it on a pile of dirt in the side yard. Summer came, and we noticed it had burst out with lovely pink torrents of flowers; we had pulled up a dormant crepe myrtle! Despite our lack of care and proper treatment, it had somehow survived to show its true colors, in its season.  How glad I am that, in the dormant periods of my life, when I may look as dead as a bundle of sticks, God doesn't toss me on the trash heap. In season, I believe, we can all begin to show signs of life again. If you see someone who seems dead to you, no signs of life, no visible growth, don't count them out; don't write them out of your life. Only wait, and love; in her time, in his season, there may be torrents of bloom there once again. And friend, if you are experiencing a great dryness, a great alone-ness, an other-ness, a deadness of soul...wait. Just wait. Though dormant for a season, there will be a living time for you. Wait for beauty's revealing in you, friend. Wait with expectation.