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Sunday, December 11, 2011

As I Wait
By webmaster @ 12:01 AM :: 386 Views :: 1 Comments :: Dr. Michael Brown

I write this as I wait to attend a holiday gala here in the city. The people who are taking us said they would be by in another thirty minutes. I didn’t want to be late, so I got ready early. Now I wait.

Today I waited for service in a busy December store, then waited to check out, then waited for a taxi home. I stopped by the shoe repair shop on the way to the apartment. They said to come by Friday afternoon, and my shoes would be done. When I went to pick them up, I was told they weren’t quite ready yet. I would have to wait.

A friend accompanied me to the bank one day last week. I told him: “Watch this. I’m going to get in the shortest line, but I assure you I will have to wait longer than the folks in the other line.” Sure enough. A guy two customers in front of me was apparently taking care of about five years’ worth of banking in one afternoon. We waited and waited and kept on waiting.

Many of us are impatient when it comes to waiting. We want Express everything in life, but that’s not the way life works. And often there is virtue in waiting that could not be found in quickness. If I wait for dessert, my appetite for it increases. If I wait for an article I ordered on line to arrive in the mail, my anticipation makes the item all the more desirable. The nine months parents spend waiting for a child to be born are filled with excitement, joy, and hopeful imagination.

Advent is a season of waiting. We don’t jump headlong from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas Day. Instead, we journey through a season, led by a star, moving toward some far away manger where Someone very special can be found. We inch our way toward Christmas, day by day, card by card, encounter by encounter, crowded store by crowded store, church service by church service, each experience adding to our understanding of why the season matters to begin with. The Birth of Christ was too big to be captured in a moment or even a day. It takes a season of prayerful reflection to take it in.

So, I hope this season for you will be a time of creative waiting. Not impatient waiting. Not frustrated waiting. But productive waiting. Day by day, I hope you will sense more and more of the magic of December, and the possibilities inherent in it for growth and meaning and life. If we pray and ponder while waiting for the Baby to be born, He will, in fact, come alive in us in ways impossible to those who refuse to wait.

Comments

By annepr @ Saturday, December 24, 2011 7:50 AM

Wonderful message, Michael! You are missed in Winston-Salem...Merry Christmas to you, Page, and the kids!

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