Now
I, like many postmoderns, have a very busy life. I have a family. I also have a career. I'm plugged into church, community, and, I hope, the world as a whole. I work, drive, cook, care, organize, blog, design, plan, wash, dry, lather, rinse, repeat. Most of the time, this cycle of busyness keeps me going and I don't even stop to think about it. And I never watch the news if I can help it. Ain't nobody got time for that.
But I'm going to be painfully honest with you, and I think it's important because I am far from alone in this. A large part of the reason I do ALL THE THINGS, ALL THE TIME is so that I won't have time to dwell on certain things.
Like how the world is a scary place. Like my own sinful nature. Like how and why I'm doing all of these things and avoiding the tasks God would have me do.
It's a defense mechanism, and frankly, it works really well. When you don't have time to think about such things, well, you just don't. It's easy to skip over the depressing realities that are all around, and simply stay on the merry-go-round. The faster it spins, the easier it is to ignore everything.
But, oh, when it stops spinning. The view becomes clear, and despair sets in.
Then
The Israelites' history in the Old Testament is a rich, vivid one. It was bound to be - after all, they were God's chosen people.
Sometimes, though, they didn't act like chosen people.
I wonder if, much like in our own culture, times of progress and prosperity lulled folks into such worldly comfort that their sense of discernment became dull, leaving them gullible and vulnerable to suggestion. Things that they once would have never taken part in didn't sound so bad and slopes got slippery. The poor went unheeded. In substance, people put idols first, all the while giving lip service to God.
And God, for a time, held off the dire consequences of their actions and tried to get their attention. He tried for centuries actually. He sent prophets, people with whom he had equipped with wisdom and truth and warning. Eventually, though, his message unheeded, God allowed the dam to break.
The wheel stopped spinning.
And they weren't prepared.
They found themselves impoverished, imprisoned, exiled.
Their beloved Jerusalem, the City of the Great King (Ps. 48:2), fell to the Babylonians.
I am Israel.
In the name of productivity and progress, I spin and spin. The busier I am, the less I can see my own sin, my fellow man, and the world around me. I hear the warnings, but reply, "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and go right on spinning. For a while.
But eventually, I have to stop, either from fatigue or because something stopped me in my tracks, and I'm forced to take stock.
And what I see is gut-wrenching.
I have put worldly things before God. I am Israel.
I have squandered the blessings I've been so freely given. I am Israel.
I have failed the human race by turning a blind eye and a cold shoulder to the needy, often in the name of self-sufficiency or my own security. I am Israel.
I look around and see turmoil, angst, and strife among my people. I am Israel.
I live in fear that the Babylonians are out there, closing in. I am Israel.
I am a ransom captive. I am Israel.
A beacon of Hope
Both for them, and for us, come the words of Isaiah. Read them out loud. Read them with spirit and urgency, as you would a proclamation to a crowd. Trust me, it will do your soul some good:
Isaiah's words were meant for the Israelites, but they comfort me, too.
Imagine the faith it must have taken for the Israelites to hear and absorb this. We have the advantage of looking backward on this. At this point in the story, we know what's coming. It's like watching a movie you've seen a hundred times when the protagonist is really in the thick of the plot, struggling, trying to push through, but the enemy has identified his weakness, his Kryptonite, and is using it against him. You want to cheer him on, "Just keep going! You can do this! It gets so much better!"
And it did. Jesus came, whether the world was prepared or not.
We are so fortunate and privileged to be on this side of the birth, able to rest in that knowledge and depend on that fact. To receive the bread and the wine to comfort and sustain. To know the protection and the sustenance that is the grace of Jesus.
The word "advent", in its most ordinary sense, means the arrival of a notable person, event, or thing (Oxford Dictionary) or the coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).
Something to be prepared for, in order to impart to it the significance it deserves, which in turn makes the event itself even more meaningful for us. Especially when the event is the arrival of the Most Important One Ever.
So I urge you, while you can, prepare. Take stock. Make ready. He's coming!
