Changed in the Waiting
Are We There Yet?
December 25, 2024
Merry Christmas! The longing of Advent ends with the celebration of Jesus's birth on December 25. Now we transition into a season of celebration during the twelve days of Christmas and beyond. These are days of joy and light, time spent cherishing the good gifts we've been waiting for. But our own seasons of waiting do not magically end every December 25—if only they would! The calendar moves ahead, but our lives rarely keep exact time with the seasons marching on. Those of us who began Advent in a season of waiting will most likely continue to be in a season of waiting as it ends.
But just as Advent is not a countdown to Christmas, neither are our lives just a countdown to getting what we want. In our waiting we grow, we find good gifts, and we become more like the King for whom we watch and wait. In many ways this four-week-long journey of Advent is our annual refresher on how we live the rest of the year. Advent teaches us how to wait, reminds us what we are waiting for, and gives us new eyes to recognize the ways God comes even before the wait is over. No, we aren't there yet. Our journey continues. But we are getting closer! We who live the way of Jesus are journeying into ongoing transformation as we become more and more like the One we follow.
This thing Jesus has invited us into is literally a way of life that includes a lot of waiting. That is not to say we will continue to experience more of the same. It’s not the same because we are not the same! We have been, and will continue to be, changed as we wait. This Advent, the Spirit has been at work growing the fruit of hope, love, joy, and peace in you. These gifts aren't like the things we open and stick on a shelf or use up until they're gone. They are signs of the Spirit's ongoing work within us—the work that our God will surely be faithful to complete (see Philippians 1:6).
As you walk forward into whatever is next, consider what has been growing within you over the last four weeks. How is the Spirit inviting you to tend to this new growth? Perhaps you will be led to join in solidarity with the lament of others to strengthen hope in places of despair. Or maybe you will be invited to take on a regular practice of gratitude that cultivates joy, or experience new ways of letting yourself be loved. The Spirit may also lead you to specific acts of justice so that shalom can flourish in you and your community.
Whatever we do, it is in concert with what the Spirit does first. We are not in control of our own transformation, but it certainly cannot happen without us either. As we move forward into the promises and unknowns of the future, receive these words of benediction from nineteenth-century Jesuit priest and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end
without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown,
something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.1
1. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, “Patient Trust,” Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits, ed. Michael Harter, 3} (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1993), 58.
But just as Advent is not a countdown to Christmas, neither are our lives just a countdown to getting what we want. In our waiting we grow, we find good gifts, and we become more like the King for whom we watch and wait. In many ways this four-week-long journey of Advent is our annual refresher on how we live the rest of the year. Advent teaches us how to wait, reminds us what we are waiting for, and gives us new eyes to recognize the ways God comes even before the wait is over. No, we aren't there yet. Our journey continues. But we are getting closer! We who live the way of Jesus are journeying into ongoing transformation as we become more and more like the One we follow.
This thing Jesus has invited us into is literally a way of life that includes a lot of waiting. That is not to say we will continue to experience more of the same. It’s not the same because we are not the same! We have been, and will continue to be, changed as we wait. This Advent, the Spirit has been at work growing the fruit of hope, love, joy, and peace in you. These gifts aren't like the things we open and stick on a shelf or use up until they're gone. They are signs of the Spirit's ongoing work within us—the work that our God will surely be faithful to complete (see Philippians 1:6).
As you walk forward into whatever is next, consider what has been growing within you over the last four weeks. How is the Spirit inviting you to tend to this new growth? Perhaps you will be led to join in solidarity with the lament of others to strengthen hope in places of despair. Or maybe you will be invited to take on a regular practice of gratitude that cultivates joy, or experience new ways of letting yourself be loved. The Spirit may also lead you to specific acts of justice so that shalom can flourish in you and your community.
Whatever we do, it is in concert with what the Spirit does first. We are not in control of our own transformation, but it certainly cannot happen without us either. As we move forward into the promises and unknowns of the future, receive these words of benediction from nineteenth-century Jesuit priest and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end
without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown,
something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.1
1. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, “Patient Trust,” Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits, ed. Michael Harter, 3} (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1993), 58.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, AND PRAYER
How would you describe what you are taking with you as you depart the season of Advent? Write a few short sentences to summarize this journey that will serve as a reminder and witness to your future self.
Which one virtue—hope, love, joy, or peace—seems most important for your journey ahead? How will you partner with the Spirit to nurture this good fruit growing in you?
How do you respond to the exhortation to trust in God's slow work? Where do you struggle to believe God’s hand is leading you?
As you look ahead, what do you feel you need? Write or speak your prayer to God as you transition into the holidays, and the season beyond.
How would you describe what you are taking with you as you depart the season of Advent? Write a few short sentences to summarize this journey that will serve as a reminder and witness to your future self.
Which one virtue—hope, love, joy, or peace—seems most important for your journey ahead? How will you partner with the Spirit to nurture this good fruit growing in you?
How do you respond to the exhortation to trust in God's slow work? Where do you struggle to believe God’s hand is leading you?
As you look ahead, what do you feel you need? Write or speak your prayer to God as you transition into the holidays, and the season beyond.