Creating Space for Advent

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:25-26 (ESV)

Time to relax, put up your feet, and loosen the belt, Thanksgiving is over. Sorry to tell you but the rest is short-lived. The official race has begun toward Christmas! You can’t help but feel a bit of anxiety at the very mention of Christmas, even though you may love the season. Somehow the lists start making lists in your head. How am I going to get all the stuff done? How can I ever get all the presents bought, the cards sent out and the food prepared? The calendar is filling up with this event, that party to attend, and all the Hallmark Christmas movies to watch.  Since Advent is still a week away, maybe we need a pre-advent Advent to prepare us for Advent. Maybe this pre-Advent week can permit us to catch our breath and slow down before the Christmas rush.

92-year-old Alfredo Aliaga just hiked the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim in October. Hiking 24 miles with more than 10,000 feet of climbing most likely allows a person to slow down and reflect. However, it also puts you into the Guinness world record by becoming the oldest person to complete it.  Maybe your pre-advent slowness will not put you on the Rim-to-Rim but it could open your eyes to the wonders of God as we prepare for the coming Messiah.

British pastor Pete Greig writes, “Isn’t it extraordinary that Jesus never hurried? With just three years to save the world, He still made time for fishing trips, picnics, and parties, which means that He was officially less busy than most pastors.” Finding moments of slowness can allow our souls to catch up with our bodies reflecting that “This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 NLT)

What if we use this week to find ways to slow down? There is a temptation to go as fast as we can during this month since we have so much to get done. Amid our mad rush, we easily overlook the beauty and joy leading up to Advent. Japanese Christian and theologian Kosuke Koyama calls God, “The Three Mile an Hour God”, not because God doesn’t move fast but because He slows down to our speed.

“God walks ‘slowly’ because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is “slow’ yet it is lord over all other speeds since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.” (Kosuke Koyama, Three Mile an Hour God)

Who better to teach us to walk three miles an hour than Jesus? I am sure Jesus had things to do and places to be but by walking three miles an hour, a hopeless and desperate woman was able to reach out and touch him. “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.” (Luke 8:43-48) If Jesus had been going as fast as we do from one store to the next, the woman, in her physical condition, wouldn’t have been able to catch him.

Jesus could hear Bartimaeus cry for help because he always walked at the speed the love of God walked. “Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” …” What do you want me to do for you? The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” (Mark 10:46-52) Bartimaeus could now walk at the speed the love of God walks.

Creating space to wander a little this week may be the best preparation for the coming Advent season. Could it be we find space to walk at the speed that God walks? It will not be easy with kids back in school, back to work schedules, weekly routines, and the rush of the holiday season starting. Yet in finding moments where we can saunter a bit, especially outside, we will enjoy a refreshed and restored soul. Henri Nouwen writes, “We have to fashion our own desert, where we can withdraw every day, shake off our compulsions, and dwell in the gentle healing presence of our Lord.” (from The Way of the Heart)

The late Calvin Miller wrote, “It’s the road that defines my day, and yet it isn’t. I know where the road is going, but I have lost all interest in the scenery. I know if I could meet some of my fellow travelers around a campfire, we would likely become good friends. But I am shut up in that modern monastic cell called the automobile. And there I listen to Christian music. And there I pray, with eyes straight ahead, for all that makes a multitasking disciple grow quiet and whole in a buzzing, honking, rubber-on-concrete world.” (from the Path of Celtic Prayer)

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper rev’rence, praise.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace. (lyrics Dear Lord and Father of Mankind-John Greenleaf Whittier)

Be blessed as you journey through this week and may you find moments to walk at the speed of God.

God is great!