Advent: A Pastoral Introduction
Waiting is generally something that the world does not like to do. Given the multiple traumas of the pandemic, economic uncertainties, wars, political divisions, you name it, asking people to wait just a little longer does not quite fit into our matrix of things that seem especially helpful to people right now.
There are times when the frustration of waiting is justified and worthy of a challenge, but, in our rush to get back to some semblance of normal, one of the traits that we have perhaps cast off too quickly is how we, as a society, learned how to wait well. Waiting well is a spiritual discipline that contributes to emotional health and resilience, and while we may have felt we ran short of it in the lengthening days of the pandemic with seemingly no end, it did serve to keep us together as a community of faith at the very least!
Waiting well is an indicator of spiritual vitality and leads to actions that are grounded in faith rather than in reactivity, anxiety, or anger. As we move into the season of Advent we will pause together this year not because we have to but because we can. What are all the ways in which we can challenge the negative assumptions of a culture that equates waiting with inaction, apathy, or a lack of passion? Can we move towards an intentionality that is deliberate, disciplined, and just?
Everyone puts everyone else on blast. All. The. Time.
We are all on high alert for offense. All. The. Time.
Take a beat for four short weeks.
Take a breath.
Put a space between the trigger and the reaction and let Christ break in there in the form of a little baby boy and ask yourself what this birth says about God in the midst of all of the yelling and dividing and rushing to and fro?
If you suspect, as I do, that this return to “normal” is perhaps not all it’s cracked up to be. If you’d like to wait together a little bit…
Won’t you please join me?
Sincerely,
Pastor Chris Enstad
Lead Pastor
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