I Hate Waiting
ad·vent – ‘adˌvent (noun) The arrival of something noteworthy, exceptional. Something worth waiting for.
At it’s core, the season of advent is about waiting.
I hate waiting.
Sure it’s fun with the little calendars when we were kids; opening each little box as the days pass till Christmas. But as adults, the waiting isn’t as fun.
First of all, we realize those chocolates taste like cardboard.
Second of all, we are used to instant gratification now more than ever in our culture.
Finally, waiting or longing for something that is not a reality can be some of the most painful experiences of our lives. I have been in a time of waiting lately in my life and it doesn’t feel good. Sometimes it feels awful.
All of a sudden I find myself longing for the good old days when I was a kid and all I was waiting for was some new toy of the year.
As I have anticipated Christmas this year, and as I have identified with what waiting has meant in this season in a new way, I have been asking:
What does the hope of Christmas, the hope of Jesus, have to say when we are experiencing the deepest longing and sometimes pain of waiting in our lives?
How can we experience hope while many of us experience deep, sometimes excruciating longing?
600 or 700 years before Jesus was born, before God came to this earth in human form, the people of God were in exile. They were owned by another group of people and they were away from home. It was a dark time when many asked what God was doing in the midst of their struggle.
During this time a prophecy was written in the book of Isaiah:
“The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).”
There was a promise in the midst of their longing that God was going to come near to them. That God wanted to be with them, as Emmanuel, which means literally “the with us God”.
But they had to wait hundreds of years.
That sounds like how long I feel I have waited on God in some seasons!
I know I’m not alone. I hear your stories every day…
Longing for healing and it hasn’t come.
Longing for a spouse and it’s not a reality.
Longing to have kids, but the tests keep coming back negative.
Longing for a healthy pregnancy – but the baby is lost… again.
Longing for that person to be with you forever, but their time on earth ends.
Longing for a job, a new job, a new place to live, a new circumstance, but days pass with only the same – if not worse.
And where is God in the midst of this?
How can we experience hope while many of us experience deep, sometimes excruciating longing?
As I have felt deep longing in this Christmas season I have realized, we can’t separate longing and hope.
Longing is what hope feels like on the hard days.
We can’t experience hope without experiencing longing. They go hand in hand.
Sometimes we try to disconnect or numb the longing we have in our life… but when we do that, we disconnect from hope as well.
Many of us know this popular proverb: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”
Many of us resonate with that reality. But are we heart sick enough to know we need a savior?
When I think about this heart sickness and heart break many of us have felt this season, it sounds like a group of people who need a savior. People who need a loving Father to be with them.
It sounds like we need… Emmanuel – the with us God!
We might feel like what we really need is the fulfillment of what we long for and hope for!
But at the core of who we all are… and at the core of everything we long for… is a longing for God. For the presence of Jesus to come and make everything new! For God to be Emmanuel, to be WITH US.
I don’t think I’ll ever be completely ok with waiting, part of me will always hate the feeling. But active waiting looks like longing for the Kingdom of God to come fully and placing my hope in a God who is with me until then.
Christmas day I will celebrate a gift worth waiting for, and long for the day when our King comes again… and honestly, I CAN’T WAIT for that day!
What do you long for this Christmas?
ad·vent – ‘adˌvent (noun) The arrival of something noteworthy, exceptional. Something worth waiting for.
At it’s core, the season of advent is about waiting.
I hate waiting.
Sure it’s fun with the little calendars when we were kids; opening each little box as the days pass till Christmas. But as adults, the waiting isn’t as fun.
First of all, we realize those chocolates taste like cardboard.
Second of all, we are used to instant gratification now more than ever in our culture.
Finally, waiting or longing for something that is not a reality can be some of the most painful experiences of our lives. I have been in a time of waiting lately in my life and it doesn’t feel good. Sometimes it feels awful.
All of a sudden I find myself longing for the good old days when I was a kid and all I was waiting for was some new toy of the year.
As I have anticipated Christmas this year, and as I have identified with what waiting has meant in this season in a new way, I have been asking:
What does the hope of Christmas, the hope of Jesus, have to say when we are experiencing the deepest longing and sometimes pain of waiting in our lives?
How can we experience hope while many of us experience deep, sometimes excruciating longing?
600 or 700 years before Jesus was born, before God came to this earth in human form, the people of God were in exile. They were owned by another group of people and they were away from home. It was a dark time when many asked what God was doing in the midst of their struggle.
During this time a prophecy was written in the book of Isaiah:
“The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).”
There was a promise in the midst of their longing that God was going to come near to them. That God wanted to be with them, as Emmanuel, which means literally “the with us God”.
But they had to wait hundreds of years.
That sounds like how long I feel I have waited on God in some seasons!
I know I’m not alone. I hear your stories every day…
Longing for healing and it hasn’t come. Longing for a spouse and it’s not a reality. Longing to have kids, but the tests keep coming back negative. Longing for a healthy pregnancy – but the baby is lost… again. Longing for that person to be with you forever, but their time on earth ends. Longing for a job, a new job, a new place to live, a new circumstance, but days pass with only the same – if not worse.And where is God in the midst of this?
How can we experience hope while many of us experience deep, sometimes excruciating longing?
As I have felt deep longing in this Christmas season I have realized, we can’t separate longing and hope.
Longing is what hope feels like on the hard days.
We can’t experience hope without experiencing longing. They go hand in hand.
Sometimes we try to disconnect or numb the longing we have in our life… but when we do that, we disconnect from hope as well.
Many of us know this popular proverb: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”
Many of us resonate with that reality. But are we heart sick enough to know we need a savior?
When I think about this heart sickness and heart break many of us have felt this season, it sounds like a group of people who need a savior. People who need a loving Father to be with them.
It sounds like we need… Emmanuel – the with us God!
We might feel like what we really need is the fulfillment of what we long for and hope for!
But at the core of who we all are… and at the core of everything we long for… is a longing for God. For the presence of Jesus to come and make everything new! For God to be Emmanuel, to be WITH US.
I don’t think I’ll ever be completely ok with waiting, part of me will always hate the feeling. But active waiting looks like longing for the Kingdom of God to come fully and placing my hope in a God who is with me until then.
Christmas day I will celebrate a gift worth waiting for, and long for the day when our King comes again… and honestly, I CAN’T WAIT for that day!
What do you long for this Christmas?