Waiting? In this season of busyness and buying, of decorating and socializing and addressing cards … waiting seems strange, out of place. Advent is about waiting, not as in waiting for a bus, or taxi, Uber, or Lyft, but purposeful waiting, waiting as a spiritual discipline.

We wait to clarify our thinking. We wait to listen deeply to each other and to our own hearts and souls. We wait so as to better determine where God’s Spirit might be leading. This has an important place in the Christian spiritual life, even though it cuts against the grain of our activity-oriented culture.

Even as we affirm the value of purposeful waiting, we also admit that the overall direction God wishes to take us, take the world, is already known. God has shown you, oh human one, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

At Advent, we proclaim that God’s light has shone in the darkness, and is not overcome by that darkness, no matter its depth and that this light will come again and again. At Advent, we begin to tell the story of one whose birth was greeted with the proclamation, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward all.”

What are you waiting for? Live in the light. Work for peace. Embody goodwill. Do justice. Love kindness. We may need to wait from time to time to determine how best to do justice, how most adequately to embody kindness, but then we hear the question, “What are you waiting for?”

I hope you have a blessed Advent and Christmas. May God’s light in Jesus warm you within and surround you without. May you be blessed and may you bless others.

One way I hope you seek to love kindness and be a blessing is through contributing to this year’s Bishop’s Advent offering which will again be dedicated to disaster recovery, here in Michigan, in the United States, and throughout the world. Thank you for considering a gift to this effort. To make a donation online, click here.

What are you waiting for? Blessed Advent. Merry Christmas!