It’s the first week of Advent, and believe it or not it’s a season in the life of the church where we are to slow down and practice hopeful waiting as we anticipate the coming of Christ into our world. For hundreds of years, Christians the world over have seen this a time for us to pause, reflect, and wonder at the most gracious gift of all – the birth of Jesus, the son of God.

If, however, your weekly routine is like mine then it feels anything but slow during this time of year!  

There are trees to put up and houses to decorate and cards to send out and presents to buy and end of the year parties to attend and family to see and…and it never seems to end! When exactly are we supposed to do this slowing down business?

If I’m being honest, this is the tension I feel not just during Advent, but pretty much every single day, as a church planter.  There is always an “and” and never enough time.  And If I’m being really, really honest, I find it difficult to slow down, and practice hopeful waiting for God to do what only God can do.

God calls out to us, much like he called out to Mary one day, and increased not only her vision for her own life, but for the entire world.  God’s messenger said to her, “You will have a son and you are to call him, Jesus. He will be great…” 

Mary rightly asked, “How will this be?” She knew what the messenger had just told her was inconceivable.  There was simply no way Mary could do what was just promised.

Sometimes the word from God just seems inconceivable to us, doesn’t it?

Here is the messenger’s simple reply, “No word from God will ever fail.”

Here’s what I’ve come to believe though: The word from God up there produces the work of God down here.

My job as a church planter and follower of Jesus isn’t to figure everything out, but to repeatedly ask, “Are my actions, and is my life in keeping with God’s promise to bring about things in the North End of Atlanta as they are in heaven?

This simply requires…wait for it…waiting. Hopeful, faithful waiting for God to deliver on his inconceivable promises.

Don’t mistake waiting with wasting time though.

Mary was chosen and called to carry the baby Jesus in her body.  She was literally, physically given a promise from God and she was entrusted with this promise, but it was Mary, who through her patience and faithfulness to God, brought Jesus into this world.  

That’s not waisting time.  

That’s allowing God to work in you to bring about the birth of his promises to you and to this world!

So, may you find time to wait on God during Advent this year. May you take a few minutes in the morning to start your day, or a few at the end to consider what God is up to in your life and the world at large. And may you discover in your waiting that God is bringing about something in this world through you that only God can do!