Long Way Here

“Men and women are called to enduring hope. True hope is not based on the ebb and flow of our feelings. Nor does it come from success in life. True hope—which means the hope that endures and sustains us—is based on God’s call and command. We are called to hope. It is a command: a command to resist death. It is a call: the call to divine life. Enduring hope is not something innate, something we possess from birth. Nor do we acquire it from experience. We have to learn it. We learn to hope if we obey the call. We learn to hope in the experiences life brings us. We come to know its truth if we are forced to stand our ground against despair. We come to know its power when we realize that it keeps us alive in the midst of death.”

~ Jürgen Moltmann, from Experiences of God, p. 19.

PRAYER

In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than we do and by those who despair more deeply than do we.
Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and in this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.
Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edges of our finger tips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new.
Amen.

~ Walter Brueggemann, from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, p. 148.

Advent is important in the story of the Christian faith. You can read more about it here.

Advent draws us into the discipline of waiting. We remember that we are not the end-all be-all. We recognize that we have far less control than we think. We remember that God is at work and keeps his promises, because the Advent of the Christ happened just as God promised. It only took hundreds of years. God’s people had to wait.

Then, God arrived. It happened in a most surprising way and unexpected time. It’s how God works. He surprises us. He doesn’t work according to our expectations. He’s not nearly as committed to our agenda as we are, even when it’s good or holy. He may, as he proved in the Advent of the Christ, have a better way.

Advent is a season of waiting, a purposeful time of learning how to wait. We wait for God to move. We wait for God to lead. We wait for God to provide. We resist the urge to take it into our own hands, whatever “it” is, and hold on to the promise of God to reveal God’s faithful love in a tangible way. We open our eye and ears to look and listen for the light of God breaking through our impatience, desperation, or inner longings. And we remember that hope, peace, joy and love are possible, even in the waiting.

I have found this season to be the most meaningful when I set rhythms to remember Advent each day. I find resources like blogs, prayers, and poems. I make a diverse music playlist for WCC mixed with genres I both enjoy and don’t enjoy so I can learn to find the beauty in both. I reach for Advent devotionals and poetry so I can learn to sit and receive a word. Find what works for you, but whatever you do, do it with intentionality.

Reach out to me if I can help you with any resources. I will gladly share.

~ Fred

PRAYER

The following prayer is from a prayerbook I visit often called, 2000 Years of Prayer, compiled by Michael Counsell. The prayer is entitled, An African Schoolgirl’s Prayer. See its simplicity and beauty. Receive it. Then, offer it to God and be still. Listen to any stirring that awakens within you. If you have questions, ask God. God knows what you should do. But remember, sometimes all God asks is that we sit with the stirring—to wait—and keep our attention on the Spirit’s presence as we walk on.

“O great Chief, light a candle in my heart, that I may see what is in it, and sweep the rubbish from your dwelling place. Amen.”

~ An African Schoolgirl’s Prayer

“Advent is about learning to wait. It is about not having to know exactly what is coming tomorrow, only that whatever it is, it is of the essence of sanctification for us. Every piece of it, some hard, some uplifting, is sign of the work of God alive in us. We are becoming as we go. We learn in Advent to stay in the present, knowing that only the present well-lived can possibly lead us to the fullness of life.

“Advent relieves us of our commitment to the frenetic in a fast-paced world. It slows us down. It makes us think. It makes us look beyond today to the “great tomorrow” of life. Without Advent, moved only by the race to nowhere that exhausts the world around us, we could be so frantic with trying to consume and control this life that we fail to develop within ourselves a taste for the spirit that does not die and will not slip through our fingers like melted snow.”

~ Joan Chittister, The Liturgical Year

PRAYER

Eternal God of new possibilities, may your coming to us in the form of the Christ child alert us to watchful waiting that results in hopeful living. Wake us from our drowsy comings and goings in the ordinary activities of life. Sober us from the dizziness of frantic activity and scrambling to make life work out in accordance to our plans. Steer us away from the roads that lead to rash decisions arising from our impatience. Yes Lord, awaken us to your presence and anchor us in the hope of your coming, and open our hearts to you. Amen.