A TIME OF WAITING

“But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”  (Isaiah 40:31)

I'm an impatient, restless person. Slowing down and waiting seem like a waste of time. Yet waiting seems to be an inevitable part of the human condition.

Henri Nouwen said, "Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about Him for whom we are waiting."

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 8:22-25 resonates with Nouwen: "Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting" (The Message).

During a time of waiting, God is vibrantly at work within us. 

-- Luci Shaw in “Nouwen Then”

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BRINGING CHRIST INTO THE WORLD

Advent reminds me in a very visual, powerful way that we are called to be pregnant with God. We are all called to labor with bringing Christ into the world, not just at Advent but throughout the year.

-- Enuma Okoro, in an interview with Christianity Today Blog for Women about her devotional  Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent (Upper Room, 2012)


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