Reading: Psalm 27:13-14 (NRSV)
Song: Waiting Here for You (lyrics here)
Reflection
A friend told me a story once of a pastor who was preaching one Sunday on the return of Jesus. After setting up the message with relevant songs and Scripture readings, the pastor got up into the pulpit and preached his sermon.
It contained one line. A question:
“What are you doing while you wait for Christ to return?”
And with that, he left the pulpit, walked down the aisle of the sanctuary and out the front door, and made his way to a coffee shop across the street from the church building where he ordered something to drink and took a seat. He waited about the length of a normal sermon, then headed back to the sanctuary, wondering if his point had been made.
I wish I could have been there on that Sunday morning. I would have loved to watch the congregation’s reaction to their pastor leaving the worship service like that! And it would have been fun to watch the dawning realization that they were basically serving as a living sermon illustration—they were living in the moment they had just been asked to think about. What would they do?
When the pastor returned to the sanctuary, he found the congregation had embraced an appropriate activity in his absence—they were engaged in a hymn sing with the help of the organist and choir. In the absence of their shepherd, they were praising God.
There are lots of things we can do in seasons where we’re waiting on God, some good, some bad. But what my friend’s story reminds us is that of the many things that can fill times of waiting, perhaps one of the very best is simply praise.
May that be true of us as we wait this Advent season.
How can engaging in praise refocus you in seasons of waiting? How intentional are you about building times of personal worship into your week? What practices or resources can help you in that desire?