“I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” (Revelation 1:3-5a)
Unsurprisingly, most of the readings for Advent focus on patience. That’s because Advent is the season in which the church remembers how to wait patiently on our God. We do not, of course, wait on Jesus’ incarnation – that has already happened. Instead, we wait patiently on our celebration of Jesus’ incarnation as a way of practicing our patience of Jesus’ return. That’s what Advent is actually all about – learning to wait for the fullness of the Kingdom of God.
The church in Ephesus, in our reading from Revelation, is commended for their “enduring patiently” for just this return, but they are also warned that they “have abandoned the love you had at first.” Being patient, but also not having the same love as you had at first is the very definition of being stuck in a rut.
Ruts are easy in love. Many a marriage has slowly devolved into the status quo of loveless coexistence. Many friendships stall out at a superficial level. Faith can cool even a strangely warmed heart into just perfunctory, routine actions. In each of these things, it can appear to be patience, but really it’s just disinterest dressed in ill-fitting virtue.
During this Advent, as we practice patience, let us not neglect to also practice growth. We should yearn for something more, even if our yearnings require us to wait. Indeed, patience is better defined as waiting with intention, than just waiting itself. Waiting with intention means we are still wrapped up in a goal, a desired end, a culmination in glory.
During Christmas, kids often go a little crazy as they obsess about that one toy they want above all else. Parents, who likely purchased that toy weeks ago, have to just keep smiling and saying, “We’ll see.” But if those parents are being honest, as grating as their kid’s incessant harping about the toy might be, they are also secretly pleased and joyful because they know that the moment when the gift is received will be a moment of profound happiness and pleasure. So it is for our Lord. He wants us to be waiting with intention, even as we keep going on and on about “thy kingdom come.”
This Christmas, give God the gift of your passionate waiting with intention. It will please your God and it will mean profound joy in your life. Amen.
