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Message from Pastor Matthew Poock

Why Wait?

By Pastor Matthew Poock

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a unique time in our culture. Advertisers label it the “holiday season” and do their best to extend its length. Some people, but not all, consider it the “most wonderful time of the year.” Whatever you call it, we are in the middle of this in-between time, a season of increased intensity in our daily routine. In many ways, it is a season of more.

More elaborate decorations in our homes and public places give the holidays a distinct visual look. We wander in and out of crowded stores with greater intention and heavier shopping bags. Stores make more money than any other season of the year, while consumers take on collectively more debt to satisfy the intensity.

Our social calendar becomes marked with more parties and gatherings than any other month of the year. We lay careful plans to spend more time with those we love. We dine on more elaborate meals and devour more sweet treats than in any other season.

The holiday season can bring out some of our finest attributes. We tend to be more generous and considerate of others in need. Charities spring into action and depend on December giving. Often we feel emotions more deeply, whether joy or grief. We talk more about peace on earth and may renew efforts to reconcile relationships.

At other times, holiday intensity gets the best of us. Tempers flare over turkey. Nostalgia leaves us wishing for years gone by. Celebrations fall short of our expectations. Zealous shoppers fight over hot commodities. Parking lots get ugly. Our days get busy, and waiting in line becomes our enemy.

I have a hunch that we wait in line more during the holiday season than any other time of the year. Grocery stores, traffic, pictures with Santa, store check-out lines — I get impatient just thinking about it. Among all the things that we have in greater supply, patience is one thing of which it is easy to run out.

I suppose it is appropriate that we wait in line so much during the holiday season. You see, the Church has its own name for this time of year: Advent. Advent is not an in-between time. Instead, Advent is the beginning of the year, a fresh start. And we start by waiting.

Advent focuses not on our own busyness; rather, it highlights the activity and approach of God. Advent carries a double sense of waiting. We wait for the birth of Jesus, the fullness of God in human form. And we wait for Jesus “to come again to judge the living and the dead” and bring the consummation of history. All our days are lived in this in-between time, between Jesus’ birth and return. Nothing we do will speed Christ’s return, so we live each day faithfully and wait with eagerness.

As much as we rail against it, we need to wait at times. We must wait for our preschooler to tie her shoes in order for her to learn to do it herself. We need to wait for the chemo treatments to take effect before surgery can remove the entire tumor. We want to wait the nine months for a baby to be born in order that the baby develop fully and be healthy. We must wait, we need to wait, we want to wait.

Waiting changes us. It can expose our selfishness and remind us that life is about more than me. We are not the center. I will wait for you, because you also need to get wherever you are going and go about your day. Waiting slows us down so that we may not be consumed by our own intensity.

Take care that the intensity of the holiday season doesn’t run you over. Be thoughtful about what more comes into your life. And as you wait in line this Advent, take a calming breath and remember the One for whom we wait.

Pastor Matthew Poock,

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