Photograph by Waldemar via Unsplash

It seems that as soon as we take down the Halloween decorations, stores immediately put up Christmas decorations, before we can even catch our breath and anticipate Thanksgiving. We need a pause in the rush of holidays, family, friends, gatherings, and holiday preparation. As soon as Thanksgiving is over and the holiday songs fill the airwaves and our Spotify playlists, it is not yet “Christmas time.”

As Christians, we believe it is “Advent time.”

During Advent, each week in worship at church, we pause to remember and experience the waiting before Christmas. Advent comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “arrival” or “coming.” The season of Advent is a spiritual season of waiting for the promise of Christ in the celebration of Christmas – Christ’s coming into the world for our salvation. Advent is the season of preparation for Christ’s arrival: Arrival in Scripture, arrival into the world, arrival into our problems, and arrival of God’s kingdom.

Advent is the pause and reflection before Christmas. Advent is the call to pause and reflect before the celebration of Christ’s birth into the world. Advent is the pregnancy of Christmas. In worship on Sundays, we hear the prophet’s call from the Old Testament, foretelling God’s anointed change agent who will bring hope, peace, love, and joy into the world. We journey with Mary and Joseph as they navigate the revelation that they have been selected to bring Jesus into the world. We listen to the stories of Elizabeth, Zechariah, John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna, and Gabriel. Each Sunday, we participate in the ongoing miracle of God’s action.

We need Advent. We need this season each year to experience waiting and anticipation that God will enter the scene unexpectedly. I often meet with congregants who are going through loss, grief, unemployment, family problems, illness, and challenging times. Just about everyone I meet with wonders about two questions. Why me? How will God resolve this? I tell them that God is working unseen.

Often, I don’t have answers to the “why” question because I don’t know God’s mind. But I do have ideas about the “how” question. I tell people they are in a liminal time: the space between what has happened and how things will turn out. This liminal time is the most challenging time, but it is where we and God do the most work. We work to change things in our control, and we allow God to work on the things we do not have control over. This is where we grow the most spiritually because we strengthen our capacity for patience, hope, and perseverance. God is working in disruption to bring about surprising transformation. Like pregnancy, the process can be painful, but it births new life.

The season of Advent is calling out to you to slow down, prepare, and grow in your capacity of journeying through those “Dark Nights of the Soul” (St. John of the Cross), the valleys of shadow (Psalm 23), and the waters of life that flood our lives (Isaiah 43). Advent is the spiritual training of the soul. In these moments, we remind ourselves of Psalm 27:

For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock… I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27: 5, 13-14 NIV)

Let us not rush into the celebration of Christmas. Let us journey through Advent and experience expectation. May you fully accept and participate in God’s work during this season of Advent. May you know with hope and anticipation that God is not finished with your fears, problems, and transitions. Your moment is pregnant with God’s touch of working towards new life.