So this is Christmas….. Christmas music pouring out of my speakers, christmas lights appearing in window after window around us and Advent koinonia at the college. One thousand and one sermons about waiting. It seems that no matter how old we all get, we are all holding our breath until Christmas eve (well Christmas day for all of you non Scandinavians).
It seems like waiting on God is the thing to do, so collectively we sit down silently and twiddle our thumbs (for about 10 minutes until we are so bored that we have to get up and do something). Today in Spiritual formation we where treated to a video that had us just sit and wait. There was a lot of giggling and people’s embarrassed looks as they where trying to figure out if the multimedia was malfunctioning or if we where really supposed to look at a black screen.
Before I say anything else I want to point out that I DO believe that we need to slow down, I do believe that God is a 3 mph God and not a 60 mph Mtv God. However I also believe that waiting is so much more than sitting silently anticipating God’s next move.
When I was a whole lot younger and impatient (being just slightly less impatient now) my good friend and mentor Mr. Brown asked me this question: “Patrik, what does a waiter do?” and after my lame reply: “waiting” he explained to me how waiting is a verb, something you do actively, not unlike a waiter in a restaurant whose only concern it is to make sure that the one he is waiting on is completely content, being ready to fulfill any of his desires.
Waiting is a posture of the heart, wearing your towel, ready to serve the Lord. To please him and make sure that he is completely cared for, we do this in worship, in loving words and by listening carefully for any clues to our masters wishes, trying to anticipate and provide his every need before it is spoken. Not out of duty like a servant who is paid but out of love like a servant set free who chooses to remain at his masters feet out of loyalty and love. or more like a lover who’s only desire is to please his beloved.
This advent let’s WAIT upon the Lord!