Are your hearing and reading a lot about Advent?  I suspect some of us are.  My inbox has been full of offers and suggestions for Advent devotions, things to do, and suggestions on how to make this Advent season meaningful.  I suspect more than once you have read that “waiting” is one of the major themes (if not THE major theme) of Advent.  I have read and heard that time and time again but it stuck me differently when I read this from Dr Molly Marshall,

“Waiting in hope is an active spiritual practice.  It requires a fundamental trust in God’s faithfulness and the humility to allow the mystery of God’s work to unfold over time.  Trying to force the Holy One to function now as in prior days displays a desire to control God; it also displays an unwillingness to perceive God in the surprising ways God may choose to reveal divine intention.”

(You can find the full post at http://mtmarshall.blogspot.com/2011/11/waiting-in-hope.html )

“Waiting … active spiritual practice … trust … humility … to allow …unfold … force … control …unwillingness …surprising … reveal … ”

I have to admit that I had never made a connection between “waiting” and “active spiritual practice” before.  But as I read and reread her sentences, it makes more and more sense that as we learn to wait we learn to move beyond ourselves and learn to trust.  And maybe learn to see. For some of us, it takes practice to do that.

Are you practicing waiting?