My mornings look like this:
Jumping out of bed, rubbing my eyes, wishing I had another hour in bed. Crawling to my bathroom, staring at myself, wondering if I could go another day, again, without washing my hair. “I have no time” I say to myself. I’m already looking forward to crawling back into bed because the day is scheduled to be hectic.
In the whirlwind of my day, I have been busy, snappy, and restless. I’ve told God that I’m too busy for Him – that He can take a number with everything else in my life.
Yes, I’ve shoved God to side with making my bed and cleaning out my car.
As I write this in November, my heart struggles to get into the Advent season. My Christmas to-do list is a little wild and my mind is not finding peace.
What is Advent all about, again?
Waiting on the arrival of Christ.
Waiting…something I have much difficulty in.
I love Psalm 62. It’s this powerful anthem that I want tattooed on my heart.
“I will wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.” – v.1
I don’t know what you’re waiting for in life or even if you’re waiting at all. Maybe you have lists like me. Lists that keep growing. Lists that have caused God to be shoved off to the side, as well as shoved off your deepest needs.
Maybe your deepest need is silence, but the craziness have buried that need.
Maybe your need is joy.
Or friendship.
All these needs just pushed off to the side because our lives have taken us away. I feel in my heart that God is saying, “Why has this become the normal? Why is being busy the thing you need to be doing? Why aren’t you taking care of yourself?”
Maybe you don’t even know what your need is.
I love what Frederick Buechner says about waiting.
“I think we are waiting. That is what is at the heart of it. Even when we don’t know that we are waiting, I think we are waiting. Even when we can’t find words for what we are waiting for, I think we are waiting. An ancient Advent prayer supplies us with the words. “Give us grace,” it says, “that we may cast off the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light.” We who live much of the time in the darkness are waiting not just at Advent, but at all times for the advent of light, of that ultimate light that is redemptive and terrifying at the same time.”
You may not even know what you’re waiting for, but you’re waiting. Your heart is waiting for what God is going to give, even when you didn’t even realize you have a need.
God is so in tune with us, that He knows us so intimately.
We find fullness of joy being in the presence of the Lord.
“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of presence and the pleasure of living with you forever.” -Psalm 16:11
As we quietly wait for the Lord, with intention or no intention, may we walk into His courts knowing that being in His presence is where we will find our source for life and light – that our deepest needs will be met. As we get closer to celebrating the birth of Christ, my prayer is that we can bring the Kingdom to earth so that our friends and family will also experience His presence -that their ultimate needs will encounter Christ and He will breath life on the most buried desire.
The Advent of Our God
Words by: Charles Coffin
The Advent of our God
Our prayers must now employ,
And we meet him on his road
With hymns of holy joy.
The everlasting Son
Incarnate soon shall be:
He will a servant’s form put on,
To make his people free.
Daughter of Zion, rise
And greet thy lowly King,
And no not wickedly despise
The mercies he will bring.
As Judge, in clouds of light,
He will come down again,
And all his scattered saints unite
With Him in Heaven to reign.
Before that dreadful day
May all out sin be gone;
May the old man be put away,
And the new man put on!
Praise to the Savior Son
From all the angel Host:
Like praise be to the Father done,
And to the Holy Ghost.
Credit: Photo by Sarah Simon // Instagram: @themintgardener
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