Patience and Advent

I just shared this post with the Ambassador participants (high schoolers) that I work with and felt like I should share it with all of you:

 

As I’ve been checking in with many of you (often the highlights of my week), I’ve noticed a common theme you’ve been asking for with prayer requests:

 

Patience.

 

What a tough word to be growing in and learning. It’s definitely not easy.

 

“The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.”

 

Yikes. That’s a tough definition. Patience by its very nature means we are accepting some hardship before we arrive or receive or finish whatever we’re dealing with at the time. Definitely not anyone’s favorite place to be!

 

I think it’s neat how the Lord moves and works seasons. For example, how fitting is it that many of us are wanting more patience as we wait to figure out the future in the midst of entering the season of Advent?

 

Not everyone has had experience with Advent, so let’s take a closer look. Advent is “a season observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas as well as the return of Jesus at the second coming. The term is a version of the Latin word meaning ‘coming’.”

 

Advent. Coming.

 

So what that means is that as Christmas draws closer we are in a season of anticipating something. Of waiting. Of being patient.

 

I don’t know about you, but it helps me a lot to have things come together like that. As I pray for patience for all of us I can also celebrate the fact that Jesus’ coming was and still is a promise. It’s Advent. The very season we are in now.

 

If you’re struggling to know how to handle the waiting period, I would encourage you to spend some time looking into Advent. Patience can also be a joyful time in our lives if we look for the Lord’s promises in it.

 

Let’s join together to pray for each other for patience in this waiting period of Advent.

Patiently waiting along with you,

Casey

 

Now I obviously haven’t been checking in with all of you reading this like I do with the participants, but I think this can speak to each of us in this advent season. He is coming!