First Sunday of Advent – Cycle B
Today’s world has many advantages over that of years ago. Take waiting, for example. Before huge cineplexes in every neighborhood, we used to have to buy tickets in advance, or wait in long lines for seats to movie openings. Remember Star Wars, anyone? Or, in more recent memory, the long waits for groceries during the empty-shelf COVID years?
On the other hand, it’s good to muster the discipline for some delayed gratification in life. Painful as it was, waiting for the bus or for a favorite TV show to return after the long summer break formed a certain character in us. I call on that character all the time when I’m waiting for a medication to work, maybe, or waiting for test results from the doctor.
I’ll bet you have daily challenges with that essential character trait, too. Are you waiting for those painful pounds to come off, for news from a loved one who is deployed, hospitalized, or just missing from your life? That kind of waiting is agonizing.
Or maybe your long wait is to overcome a resentment that’s had you in its grasp for decades. More likely, your wait is for healing for a child who is in the grip of depression, or an addiction, or has problems at school. That’s the most agonizing wait of all.
I have an idea. How about if every reader of this column around the country prayed for someone reading these words right now this Advent? Talk about waiting. We won’t know until we see Jesus who we were praying for and who was praying for us. Ready? I can’t wait.
How would you like your unknown prayer partner to pray for you?
Kathy McGovern ©2024