I must confess that I do not wait well. Waiting involves stopping, looking, and listening actively to the silence of one’s life. But often I want so badly to fill it with something “constructive”, to spend time doing something active. In fact, Henri Nouwen wrote that “for many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go.”

Advent is the season of waiting. This, though, is not the same as a season of rest. This is not a season for doing nothing. This is instead a season for actively partipating as the world waits for the coming of God. It is a season for waiting not for what we have planned, not even for what we know, but for that which is unimagineable, unintelligible, and unlike anything that we have ever known. Experience has shown us that God comes into our lives in ways and times that we do not expect. The point is, though, that God is really already there–we just have to learn to wait long enough for our lives to open up enough to see what God is already showing us–Emmanuel, God with us. This is the season to go forth and wait!

Grace and Peace,
Shelli