Waiting Here For You
The overarching theme of Advent, in case you have missed it somewhere in your theological training, or you haven’t heard it recently defined or explained in your faith traditions, is “waiting.” I loved reading Nazarene Bible College’s own Provost’s words of Advent sent out this week, “I hope this season of celebrating Jesus’ coming and coming again is renewing your sense of the hope, peace, joy, and love found in Emmanuel, God with us” (Lyke, 2023). This speaks Advent language. This past week in the adult Discipleship class that I teach, I did a little waiting exercise at the beginning of the lesson just to help us get a perspective on how class members think individual class members deal with waiting or handle flight delays or postponed travel plans? I gave each class member a sheet of paper with the words, “patient” or “impatient” printed on it. It was a very enlightening exercise as we gained some new insight on individuals and even created some marriage counseling moments for some couples!
I thought it would be fun (after all, I am the Christian Education guy) to do the same exercise at the NBC Academic Council zoom meeting. I asked each to find a piece of paper and on one side write the word “patient” and on the other side “impatient,” to see just how well we knew each other. We went around the Zoom room, and as I called out individuals names, I asked them to hold up whether they thought these individuals were “patient” or “impatient” when it came to handling flight delays or postponed travel plans. Then, I asked the individual if we had identified them as well as we thought we knew them!
We saw that some of us were good at waiting (being patient) and well some of us needed to develop the spiritual gift of patience! If you think about this thing called waiting, we spend a lot of our time waiting. We start the process of waiting in early childhood, and it continues through our senior years.
“We spend a lot of our time waiting. Waiting in line. Waiting for news. Waiting for a response. Waiting for a promotion. Waiting for the next season of life. God is at work in our waiting. We might not see any changes in these times of waiting, particularly through times of difficulty and periods of personal growth, but there is a plan and purpose in all of it” (Clemence, 2023).
As we read scripture, we see that God engages in this thing called waiting.
- Abraham - Waiting for a Promise to Be Fulfilled
- Joseph - Waiting in Prison for a Purpose
- Moses, Caleb and Joshua - Waiting in the Wilderness in the Hope of God's Promise
- Job - Waiting Through Suffering
- David - Waiting to Be King at the Appointed Time
- Daniel - Waiting for Breakthrough in Prayer
- Jesus - Waiting to Begin His Ministry
This Advent and Christmas season you may find yourself in a season of waiting. Giglio (2023) reminds us, “Waiting on Christmas to arrive, though, usually doesn’t feel like that long of a time, given the full calendars and hectic pace. And we may even take comfort in knowing that regardless of what we do or leave undone, Christmas still comes. We can know with certainty that the hours, days, and weeks will pass leading up to Christmas Day.”
“Throughout the church’s history, Advent has been a dark season: a season for soberly reflecting on the darkness of the world. We do this, first by repenting of the sin in our own hearts, and second, by lamenting the evil in the world around us.
In Advent, then, we put ourselves intentionally back into the time before Christ came. Yes, we know the light is coming — we know, in fact, that it has already come!—but Advent is an invitation to sit in the darkness for a while. As the hymn says, we wait “in lowly exile here, until the Son of God appear.”
Our world makes it all too easy to ignore this advice. But sometimes “sitting in the darkness” can be a healthy and life giving practice for Christians. After all, it’s because of the hope of Christ’s incarnation — the hope of Christmas — that we’re able to look steadily at the darkness, without flinching, and without despair. Our repentance and lament are done with full confidence that, however dark it is now, the light is coming” (Warren, 2023).
I’ve been encouraging my Discipleship class members this Advent season to light a candle or light the Christmas tree, sit in the dark and to spend some time waiting and reflecting on the meaning of Advent this season. Reminding them, “If we aren’t willing to sit in the darkness of Advent, the light of Christmas won’t shine so brightly” (Warren, 2023).
By Dr. Jerry Storz, NBC faculty and Christian Education Director
Works Cited
Clemence, Ruth. "7 Encouraging Bible Stories That Prove Waiting Is Worth It."
Bible Study Tools, 2 May 2023, www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/encouraging-bible-stories-that-prove-waiting-is-worth-it.
html. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
Giglio, Louie. Waiting Here for You. HarperChristianResources, 2023.
Warren, Tish Harrison. Advent. IVP, 2023.
Published: 12/15/2023
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