Waiting for...

"Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." -Hebrews 9:27-28
"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." -Psalm 27:4

In the community of folks that I live my life around, a great deal of thoughts and words are spent in the direction of waiting. We spend our Advent remembering that we are to watch and wait for Immanuel, God with us. Immanuel 2000 years ago. Immanuel now. Immanuel to come. We celebrate, remember, and wait for the God who was, is, and is to come.
We sing about it. We teach about it. We pray about it. We wonder about it. And I guess I'm finding myself asking the simple questions: what does it mean to wait for God and why are we told in scripture to do so?

By nature, waiting finds one in a posture of lacking or dependence. Every Christmas eve from 1987-1993 would find me and my brother awake at 4.30 eagerly awaiting the 6.00 hour that our parents set as the time we could see what Santa brought for us. We were lacking bicycles, teenage mutant ninja turtles, and baseball cards, so why would we not be up for hours eagerly anticipating what would soon become ours. We were dependant on some outside force (i.e. Santa=mom and dad) to provide what it was that we were waiting for.

If we already had the complete set of 1988 Donruss baseball cards, we wouldn't be up all night waiting for them-lack. If it weren't for parents who cared about their 2 overly eager sons, we wouldn't have been up waiting for gifts-dependant.

Where are you lacking?
Where are you dependant?

I'm so quick to make sure that I'm not lacking what it is I want. I work hard so that I am independent. Maybe waiting for Christ could simply mean allowing myself to lack. Maybe waiting for Christ could simply mean intentionally seeking dependence.

Waiting...am I?

At times, waiting happens in the face of the most desperate of circumstances. We wait to hear the results from the doctor. We wait for the phone to ring from that one specific person. Maybe waiting could simply mean being desperate for something to come to me with hope in hand.

But the thing about waiting is that at times, waiting causes us to miss now. We get so caught up in what we're waiting for that we miss the moment to moment normalness of life. In waiting for Santa to bring me that blue huffy bike on Christmas morning, I missed the interactions with grandma and grandpa. And while they understood why, I missed them nevertheless. Are we to miss the normalness of a walk as the sun goes down? Are we to miss the samenss of seeing our breath when we breathe on a frigid winter morning? Are we to miss the sweetness of a welcoming embrace of a friend? Are we called to miss now because we're waiting for what has yet to come?

What if waiting means living a desperate, lacking, dependant life rooted in the nowness of each moment, guided by the raising of our eyes to what we're waiting for?

So what are you waiting for? Is it strong enough to draw you back to the nowness of today all while shaping the way you live in the now?