Waiting

I hate waiting. Right now, I am waiting for a DOOR group to arrive for the weekend. I can’t wait for the weekend to start – we are going to have a great time eating some good Mexican food, then serving at two agencies, attending a hip hop church tomorrow and another church on Sunday. Can’t beat it – it is a lot of fun (Not to mention the teaching/learning moments that will occur.) I am ready for them…but I am 1 ½ hours early. So because I couldn’t wait, I wait.

Now, back in the day, I loved waiting tables. I got to interact with people, food, and assemble some type of order through it all. There were lots of benefits being a waitress, but none of them had to do with sitting around. Instead, this job with waiting in the title was a very active thing. I was at the service of people, that sort of waiting.

So which kind is Advent (the season of the Church year we are in)? I love Advent. Partially because it is engrained in me as a little kid to like it. Advent at the core is a time of preparation…a time of waiting. But it is not…no, not boring waiting like I am enduring right now – but instead active waiting. We even know the love, joy, peace and compassion that we are waiting for – Jesus.

Advent is strange that way. I mean, we as Christian folks know Christmas is coming, that Jesus is going to be born on December 25. We even know that Good Friday and Easter are coming in the Spring. And yet, we are asked every year at this time to prepare and wait.

So let us wait, for the One who bring Hope, Joy, Love and Peace into our lives each day – even today.