Waiting

 

The whole Advent concept of waiting is writ large for me this year. Tomorrow I meet with a surgeon to map out next steps. Next steps in this detour into the land of cancer. Not a destination on my bucket list. Not during Advent either. I guess that's how detours go, rarely expected. I'll be looking for the unexpected treasures that detours often reveal, and writing about it will be one way I attempt to navigate this journey with patience, trust, and optimism.*

Yesterday, I shared a brief children's message on hope and lighting the first (hope) candle of Advent. Interesting time to be pondering the difference between wishing (I sure know what I wish for right now), and hope. Scripture promises that hope never disappoints. God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

I enter Advent knowing I will be waiting in new and different ways this season. My goal is to wait with intention, to neither overextend nor sit in worry, but to share faith, hope, and love with all of you who journey through Advent, through this detour, and through life alongside me.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for you are my praise. Jeremiah 17:14

*Just started Living the Message by Eugene Peterson. Always a fan of his writing and insights, I appreciated this from the Introduction:

But there is another kind of writing that is itself a way of knowing, the words taking us beyond what we already know, probing mystery, carrying us into the interior of truth where intimacies are developed and covenants formed. This is the way the Word of God works as it is written in our Scriptures–not telling us about reality, but leading us into it, creating it in us. . . Writing in this way is a kind of praying: “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). This is the kind of writing I have always wanted to do; to use words not merely to add to the already considerable accumulation of information in the world, but to its life.

 

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