James 5:7-10
Like the song says, it's starting to look a lot like Christmas. Not for the reasons given in the song - 5 and 10's glistening again with candy canes and silver lanes aglow. It's starting to look a lot like a modern-day Christmas with 5 and 10's actually costing hundreds and the only lanes we see are the overcrowded ones on our freeways.
As we move closer to Christmas in this Advent season we will find ourselves waiting a lot. Just the other day I waited almost 20 minutes just to use the ATM, which is better than the 2 hours it took me to get home last week after an already full day. It would seem as though that during Advent it can become easy for us to forget what it is we are waiting for.
Advent is the time when we await the coming of Christ into our lives. It's a time when we faithfully look towards the journey ahead with the knowledge that Christ will be there. it's through Christ's guidance along our path that we can find the joy we are searching for. All we really need is patience.
I read a story of a young man who had turned away from Christianity because he didn't hear Jesus speak to him. His church family and friends all told him Jesus will talk to him to let him know what to do. His youth pastor told him that Jesus always talks to us when we need guidance. This young man never heard Jesus say anything, so he felt as though he wasn't worthy and instead became an atheist, dedicating his life to doing good for other people just because he felt that was the right thing to do, not because Jesus told him to do it.
What his church should have told him is that the path towards God takes as long as it does, and no matter where he was on that journey he was surrounded by people who would accept him for who he was. Patience, it would seem, is the one thing we as Christians should allow for in the formation of a relationship with God through Christ. It will happen in its own time, our "job" is not to make it happen, but to simply be there as it does, or doesn't.
My wife and I have decided to do our Christmas shopping this week. The malls will be crowded, the parking lots filled with stressful people all trying to get that stall closest to the door, the lines will take a long time, and the roadways will be a hair short of rage. Somehow I know that with my wife at my side, and the joy I get from being with Christ during Advent, I know my patience will overcome all of that.
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