In the previous post, we heard from Pastor Rich Villodas as he taught us about how Advent is a season for “Wait Training.” In part two of his article, originally published at Missio Alliance, we now look at four practical ways we can learn to bear fruit in our spiritual lives as we wait during this season.
By Rich Villodas
Four Important Elements of Waiting
1. Reflective Prayer
Henri Nouwen has said, “Active waiting is waiting that pays attention, is fully present to what is really going on, even when to all outward appearances, nothing is going on.”
One of the primary ways of this kind of waiting that pays attention is in reflective prayer. Prayer is not simply articulating our needs before God. It’s also making ourselves available for God to articulate his movements before us.
Advent is a season of waiting in a posture of prayerful attention. It’s often when we get silent that we can finally begin to trace God’s movements in our lives.
2. Friends on the Journey
Waiting is much easier when done in community. This is one of the reasons Jesus asked his disciples to join him as he awaited his death (unfortunately they fell asleep on him!). Advent is a reminder that waiting is a communal act.
Mary and Elizabeth wait together.
Simeon and Anna wait in community.
The people of God expectantly waited together.
Advent is an invitation to seek out friends on the journey who will help us process, discern and sit in silence with us as we discern God’s activity.
3. The Hearing of the Gospel Preached
As we wait, our souls need to be grounded in hope that comes from the proclamation of the gospel. We each need a word spoken to us regularly that reminds us of God’s faithful coming in Jesus.
Sunday worship is not a time to get religious goodies and head home. It’s an opportunity to open ourselves to God’s creative word, which is to anchor us in a story that is often at odds with the stories we tell ourselves.
4. Waiting is an Active Activity
To wait on the Lord doesn’t mean inactivity. It doesn’t mean a refusal to take initiative, or to seek and search for opportunities (a new job, a romantic relationship, etc.). Rather, it’s a refusal to move without connecting our lives to God in prayer and reflection, first and often.
Eugene Peterson has said, “Waiting in prayer is a disciplined refusal to act before God acts.”
Sometimes waiting on the Lord means “staying put” in a particular situation until you get further instructions. At other times, it requires us to move forward—but in a way that is grounded in prayer.
Ultimately, to wait on the Lord is a way of life that comes against our tendencies to be impulsive, to be anxiously reactive, and wise in our own eyes.
If decisions are being made that are anxiously reactive and impulsive, chances are we need some practice in waiting on the Lord.
Advent reminds us that God has come, is coming, and will come again. It’s a great opportunity to train our souls in waiting.
This article was originally published at: Missio Alliance.
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