Busy-ness and Contemplation
An Advent reflection as we all accelerate to Christmas
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Is it, though? The refrain for a lot of people doesn’t have the word “wonderful” in it. Instead, we have “It’s the most busy-full time of the year.” I know that’s not a word, but who has the time for correct words and grammar! We’re busy, that’s the whole point!
Once we round the corner into December a lot of us are already racing for the finish line of Christmas Day and then maybe on the 27th or the 30th or sometime mid-January we can finally catch our breath. It somehow feels normal to run around decorating, working, gathering presents, going to the parties, hosting parties, never mind it being crunch time at school or at work.
At the same time, it somehow seems normal for the world to be crashing in on itself, and so we will drown our sorrows in some cinnamon flavoured drink and flop down in front of the Netflix box to find this year’s Hallmark movies that I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen but it doesn’t matter anyway because they all have the same plot.
How is it that we arrived at the notion of hectic acceleration, escalating stress, and the world feeling as if it is spinning out of control as “normal”? How did we begin believing that relief will somehow magically arrive in the form of entertainment delivered wirelessly to our living rooms?
How is it that our lives are so full and yet there is often little “fullness” to them?
This season we are beginning is called Advent (the weeks that encompass the 4 Sundays before Christmas Day). Christmas is the season that runs for 12 days, starting on December 25th. Don’t get me started on people believing that the 12 days of Christmas are the 12 days prior to the big day! No, Christmas Day kicks off its own season so once December 25th hits, feel free to party for 12 straight days.
But before that, we’ve got Advent. And Advent is not really about being super busy getting ready for Christmas. Most of us, of course, already know this. We know life in general isn’t supposed to be about being super busy at all.
Advent is actually a time for contemplation.
The advent of something means that something is new happening. Advent means arrival. A sunrise marks the advent of each new day. The very nature of the word sparks something within us. There’s a flicker of hope with an advent.
During this season we look back and we look forward. We remember and we anticipate.
The particular advent of this season is the advent of Jesus Christ. He had a first advent and really that is what Christmas celebrates: his (first) arrival, God with us, the incarnation. We also look ahead to his second arrival, a return. A time when Christ will set all things right.
And this is where contemplation comes in. We look at our lives and imagine Christ returning. Not in a doomsday kind of way, and not in a “you better watch out” kind of way, but in a way where we examine ourselves and whether we are aligning with his way of peace, love, and joy. What might Jesus find upon a return? This is a starting point for Advent contemplation.
But it is not an end point. Of course, there must be action as well as contemplation. So, yes, let’s do some things to align ourselves more fully with how God loves the world in Christ. But there is something more full than us looking at our lives, feeling kind of bad, and then trying harder. This is not what our faith is really about in the end.
The hope of Advent is not found in a thought exercise about “if Jesus came back” or “what would Jesus do?” No, the hope of Advent is found in the reality that it is all in God’s hands.
Advent is about anticipating the actual return of the King of kings who sets the world right. So, yes, we ought to do things that align with the coming Kingdom (things like caring for the poor, the outcast, etc.), but ultimately we place our hope in the coming King rather than in our efforts. This is something far deeper to contemplate. This is resting in God even in the midst of our efforts in what often feels like an out of control and accelerating world.
Our hope is not in our own power to acknowledge how we are not quite doing enough and then our resolve to do a little more to help others. Could we do more? Of course! And then we could do more again, and again, and again. It actually can start to feel pretty hopeless.
But our hope is in God, in Christ. And so, in Advent, we anticipate and celebrate the eventual dawning of God doing the new thing, of Christ’s return where, as Revelation 21:4-5 says
God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more… …And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’”
There are many, many things to do, and many devotionals, courses, sermons, groups, an activities in the season of advent. (Feel free to check out the Advent Page for Prairie Church where I serve for a bunch of these!)
These things are not there to keep you busy with “one more thing to do.” They are there to help draw you back to contemplating the advent of Christ, to connect in community, and to celebrate the hope to which we are called.
I pray that in the coming weeks you will live in the season of Advent in ways that are truly meaningful, and not just busy-full.