Waiting for Dawn

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up quickly;

your vindicator^ shall go before you,

the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.  Isaiah 58:8-9

Dear Friends,

When I was in university in Houston, I was introduced to snow skiing. One year, I decided to put together a trip with some other young folks from our church to drive to Colorado to go skiing. One of the members offered the use of their VW Bus, so the seven of us set out on the 13 or so hour drive to the slopes.

Around midnight found us in the middle of west Texas. Flat. Sparsely populated. Nothing for miles. I was driving and I noticed that when I took my foot off the accelerator, the speed did not slow down. The accelerator was frozen! This was no problem when there were no towns around but when we passed through a town, we had to slow down to half our speed!

With no other alternatives, when we approached a town, we just killed the engine. Then we could go into the engine well (which was in the rear) and pull on the cable and break it free. The problem was that every time we did this, we flooded the engine and had to wait at least 5 minutes before we tried starting the engine. If we tried too soon, it would not start and we could drain the battery trying. If the battery went dead, we were really stranded in a cold, dark, desolate place.

For 5-6 hours, we went through this routine in the middle of the night. Finally, around dawn, we made it Raton Pass, New Mexico. We found a diner open. As we sat down in the warm, cozy diner with hot coffee and a hot breakfast on the way, the sun’s rays started shining through the windows to announce a new day. And it felt like a new day. The long, hard, dark night was over. The sun was shining and we knew that we would be okay and that we would make it to our destination.

This is the sense of Advent. It is the waiting and anticipation of the celebration of God’s light coming into the world in Jesus. Of course, we would love to just ignore the darkness and stay in the light. The challenge is: The light is most clear in the darkness. Being willing to slow down, experience our sadness, grief, disappointment, and weariness (we might add… our own sinfulness) allows us to name it, offer it to God, and to celebrate and rejoice once again in the good news of the incarnation… God IS with us!

During this Advent time, remember to pause, breathe, and just be. Allow God’s light to dawn on you anew.

Peace,

Pastor Phil