by Laurie Norris

“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning. Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.” —Psalm 130:5-6

Waiting sucks.

I’m the absolute worst at waiting on anything.

The idea of just sitting around, doing nothing, unable to control everything going on around me because I’m trapped in stasis waiting on someone else to do something that, ugh, couldn’t I just do it myself already and get on with it?

Like I said, I’m the worst at waiting.

Ironically, this is a big reason why Advent is my favorite time of year. I can’t speed things up and just get to Christmas already. I can’t control time or its effects on the season. I have to shut up and wait for Christ to arrive on his schedule on God’s kairotic timeline. Since waiting is like wearing someone else’s shoes, Advent is for me the time of year I wear my faith most uncomfortably. It’s the time of year I become most aware of myself as a person of faith. Because I have to cede control to God’s schedule, and all of our rituals throughout the Advent season are designed to emphasis this act of letting go and waiting, Advent means I end up stopping to to think about who I am and what my role is in this palimpsestic day planner God’s got going now. This season and our rituals remind me that my mundane obsessions are just teeny blips in a larger, grander plan for the perfection of all reality. If God could wait some 13 odd billion years for me to show up on the scene to play my part in creation, then I can wait for four simple weeks for a holy ritual reminding us all of the overwhelming and consuming love of a creator who made every single thing in the universe and even then made me, too. And Des you.

So, waiting sucks, but Advent is amazing. #WorthTheWait

“Waiting as Prayer” by Jaunita Ryan

I wait. I wait for you to answer. I wait for the first light of dawn. I wait for you. I wait for you. I wait for you. I wait. My waiting is my prayer. In the pain of the waiting I feel my longing for you. I long for you to be here. I wait for your arrival, you who has always been here. In the waiting I know a larger space in my soul is being excavated. I can feel the growing emptiness. But I know that it will be filled with your gracious, loving presence. Make me ready to receive you. I wait