“For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.”
—Marty Haugen, “My Soul in Stillness Waits,” based on Psalm 62
Tick…tick….tick…
Won’t we ever get out of here? How long until my order arrives? When will he come home? When is the baby due? Will this fog never lift? When will this traffic move? Won’t she ever call back? When will they finally get here? How long will it take? You mean I have to wait?!?!
I admit it: waiting is often tough for me. Temperamentally, I’m more wired for activity and efficiency than stillness or quiet. But my spiritual journey has proven the immeasurable value of silence with God, so cultivating a habit of daily prayer became a joyful task rather than a dreaded one. Along the way, I discovered the huge difference between idle waiting and waiting well, and in the process, have come to relish Advent as a true gift of Christmas preparation time.
Idle waiting seeks any distraction to ease its discomfort, and for many years I easily fell prey to the world’s messages of holiday busyness in the name of “getting ready for Christmas.” By contrast, waiting well holds an expectation of God’s presence through the waiting. In waiting well, I surrender my need to be active or in control, trusting that God will reveal himself as he alone knows I need. My waiting is thus transformed into consciously seeking God, often through solitude in prayer. This isn’t to suggest eliminating Christmas decorations, gift-giving, and gatherings, but rather to follow St. Ignatius’s advice to strive for a healthy balance between holiday commotion and calmness.
Accepting the invitation to enter into the spirit of Advent encourages me to escape from the commerce and chaos of Christmas by instead focusing on the stillness required to become attentive to the stirrings of my soul. For it is only in stillness and quiet that I clearly recognize the hunger for God lying beneath the distractions that preparations for Christmas all too easily generate. Only in stillness and quiet can I hear God’s gentle whisperings and embrace the new life of love God calls me to bring into the world. Only in stillness and quiet will I become aware of my utter helplessness for this task and allow God to reshape my heart, surrendering more to his will day by day.
Rather than an agonizing exercise in waiting, Advent is pure joy, a season of simplicity in its purity of intention. Growing in holiness while preparing my heart to receive Jesus anew may seem to radicalize Christmas, but the fruit of inner peace by being liberated from the season’s madness is unmistakable. After all, isn’t growing in intimacy with God—loving others more as God loves us—the underlying reason for celebrating Christmas?
Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash.
This year I am concentrating on mother Mary and how much waiting she went through since the annunciation. She had a lot of time to wait and anticipate what was coming for her when her child was born. Yet she did not keep her self busy with her concerns but hurried to go help Elizabeth and listen to her concerns and to be at her side in her last 3 months. I am trying to model her actions and intentions this Advent. Thank you for this great article.
I too am not a waiter… but this Advent I am challenged to try to be more reflective. Reflection takes patience ( a fault also) and silence. I have found deliberate times to feel called to slip away, even sitting alone in my car between driving chores. Just moments some times but those prayers do add up during the day. I keep yearning to grasp more silent time… keeping my Adoration hour helps. Appreciated your witness.
What a phenomenal article. Waiting is NOT something I do easily. I have made the “Three minute retreat” and the meditation on St. Joseph staples in my Advent reading. Like the soda ad, “It is the pause that refreshes”. Thank you for a beautiful meditation.
What a wonderful reflection, Cindy, and so much in harmony with what this Advent brings to me: “An expectation of God’s presence” and the knowledge that He will reveal Himself to me as what He alone knows I need. I need to keep working on letting go of control. Thank you for this! God bless and Merry Christmas.
Cindy this resounded with me on so many levels! I don’t wait well. In fact, I”m a horrible “waiter.”
But this Advent, for a number of reasons, I find myself quite happy to wait and wish and wonder.
Beautiful piece. Thanks for sharing.
This prayer speaks loud and clear to me!