Advent - A Time for Waiting and Something More
There is a reason for this season, no matter what tradition we observe or celebrate...
This is a time of preparation, and delving more deeply within ourselves, as we journey into the heart of winter...
But, it is also a time for waiting...
What a lesson this is, in a culture of instant gratification - where everything occurs instantly - where no one truly knows how to wait - or acknowledge its quiet lessons and the fruits born of its practice...
For many of us, and most particularly Christians, this time of Advent ushers in the Christmas season. We prepare our hearts and home - we await with joyful expectation, exercising hospitality, generosity, and being generally of good cheer. We are pregnant with possibilities... As Mary was... Yes, anything is possible...
What a positive message this is for us to digest and embody during a year that has seen much strife and negativity. But even in the midst of all of that, the promise, the seeds, and the possibility of love blooms, everywhere, most especially in places where one least expects it...
This is a time to welcome others. Not to turn our backs on anyone... And the season is seeded from the remnants of our observation of Thanksgiving, when we took the time to express our deepest gratitude. And there is always something to be grateful for. When I can't find something to be grateful for - I think of that child of the Holocaust, who scratched these words into the barracks where he - or she died:
"I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining."
What should we express our gratitude for? For EVERYTHING!
Henri Nouwen, the much loved theologian, once observed, that the experience of waiting in the scriptures occurs within the context and expectation of a promise, and it was this promise that allowed those dwelling in the experience of waiting, the courage to wait. This sense of promise enabled the following individuals in the Gospels - Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon and Anna - to wait - from a place where they felt nurtured and fed - so they could stay where they were - in the moment - accepting their experience...
Nouwen also noted, that "this is very important for us [as well]...because we can wait only if what we are waiting for has already begun for us. Waiting is never a movement from nothing to something. It is always a movement from something - to something more..."
I need to wrap my brain around that...
We wait, to receive more - to give birth to something greater in ourselves - something we already are...
This week, I read a message which asserted that we should give thanks for what is not yet. In doing so, we help create what we have not quite received...
We wait, with a deep sense of expectation...
We should say: "I have received and I am grateful..."
Let us begin this season of waiting as if it were an adventure. Every day truly is... Let let go of being impatient. Advent, and this season - is an invitation for all of us to live more deeply in the present moment...
Wait! If you hurry, you might miss the biggest gift of the season - regardless of your tradition or spiritual practices: It is the Gift of God's Grace and Peace...
This is a time of preparation, and delving more deeply within ourselves, as we journey into the heart of winter...
But, it is also a time for waiting...
What a lesson this is, in a culture of instant gratification - where everything occurs instantly - where no one truly knows how to wait - or acknowledge its quiet lessons and the fruits born of its practice...
For many of us, and most particularly Christians, this time of Advent ushers in the Christmas season. We prepare our hearts and home - we await with joyful expectation, exercising hospitality, generosity, and being generally of good cheer. We are pregnant with possibilities... As Mary was... Yes, anything is possible...
What a positive message this is for us to digest and embody during a year that has seen much strife and negativity. But even in the midst of all of that, the promise, the seeds, and the possibility of love blooms, everywhere, most especially in places where one least expects it...
This is a time to welcome others. Not to turn our backs on anyone... And the season is seeded from the remnants of our observation of Thanksgiving, when we took the time to express our deepest gratitude. And there is always something to be grateful for. When I can't find something to be grateful for - I think of that child of the Holocaust, who scratched these words into the barracks where he - or she died:
"I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining."
What should we express our gratitude for? For EVERYTHING!
Henri Nouwen, the much loved theologian, once observed, that the experience of waiting in the scriptures occurs within the context and expectation of a promise, and it was this promise that allowed those dwelling in the experience of waiting, the courage to wait. This sense of promise enabled the following individuals in the Gospels - Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon and Anna - to wait - from a place where they felt nurtured and fed - so they could stay where they were - in the moment - accepting their experience...
Nouwen also noted, that "this is very important for us [as well]...because we can wait only if what we are waiting for has already begun for us. Waiting is never a movement from nothing to something. It is always a movement from something - to something more..."
I need to wrap my brain around that...
We wait, to receive more - to give birth to something greater in ourselves - something we already are...
This week, I read a message which asserted that we should give thanks for what is not yet. In doing so, we help create what we have not quite received...
We wait, with a deep sense of expectation...
We should say: "I have received and I am grateful..."
Let us begin this season of waiting as if it were an adventure. Every day truly is... Let let go of being impatient. Advent, and this season - is an invitation for all of us to live more deeply in the present moment...
Wait! If you hurry, you might miss the biggest gift of the season - regardless of your tradition or spiritual practices: It is the Gift of God's Grace and Peace...
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Olga