Adventure in waiting

Jeremiah 33:14-16; Ps 25 To you, O lord, I lift my soul; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28,34-36

We have entered into Advent, this time of waiting and longing.

Just a word: The one who expects nothing can no longer live. Man is alive in so far as he waits and his willing to continually wait.

what do we wait for in life that makes us alive?


A few weeks ago, I decided to bite the  bullet and go to the allergy specialist in order to figure out what exactly was causing all of my sinus infections and itchy and watery eyes and all the rest of the symptoms.

I sat in the office as they poked me 96 times on my back with a variety of allergens to see how I would react.  The doctor wasn't satisfied so they poked me 66 times more down each of my arms, just to make sure.

I waited in the office for three hours!

Why was I waiting?  Deep down in side I had hope that I could get answers; I waited because i hoped i could get better, that my life would get better.   Isn't this why we wait in the first place!

It turns out that i am allergic to Mesquite, live oak, Pecan, and Cedar trees and their pollen along with ragweed, Johnson grass, Bahia grass, every mold you could imagine along with, my personal favorite, Cock Roaches.

I had a decision to make:  do i continue with antibiotics and steroids or do I try something different and go with the allergy shots.

The allergy shots are a 5 year commitment.
So I decide what the heck, go with the shots and by the time I am 41 I'll be better...at least that is the plan.

This past friday I went back to the doctor to start the process of getting shots.  I went in to the little room and received two shots, one in each arm, of a diluted version of what i am allergic to: trees and grass in one arm and mold and other stuff in the other arm.

After receiving the shots, I was informed of the possible side effects from getting the shots, it was long list.

At first i thought, shouldn't this have been told to me first, but too late i was already committed.

The possible side effects were the following: dizziness, hives, swelling, itching, tightness in chest, tightness in throat, and inability to breath and my personal favorite, and I quote the "on rare occasions death."

I thought it odd that Death was considered a "rare side effect."


But isn't that how we operate in our current mindset as far as living is concerned.

We do treat death as a rare side effect. Yet, we know Death is no side effect at all.  we must all experience it.

We can ignore it, we can refuse to accept it, we can try to avoid it, but in the end Death comes either swiftly or slowly, but it comes. The end will arrive.

As we enter this season of Advent, the readings for the first couple of weeks point us toward the end, the grand finality.

This season often makes me think of fireworks.  Usually in fireworks display there is a push toward the end; there is a crescendo where the best is yet to come.

This is what the end times is about, the Parousia.
Here is a fancy sounding word we should store in our memory bank: Parousia.
It simply means, the second coming of Christ.  all of creation crescendos to the grand finality when Christ will come again.  The best is yet to come.

As JEsus describes for us so well in the Gospel.

JEsus describes the unraveling of creation as the powers of heavens are shaken.
The sun, the moon, the stars all shall be peeled back.  God undoes what he did int he beginning.

And why not, they are there not for themselves but for us.  All of creation has meaning in so far as it serves the final purpose of God which is to prepare us and encourage us on the journey.

They are not eternal; they have meaning in s far as they belong to God and serve his purpose.

As the creation is unraveling what is our position.  JEsus tells us we are stand erect, raise our heads for our redemption is at hand.

Standing erect and raising our head is a sign of hope.  We stand with hopefulness.  We have hope not that everything will turn out well for us but rather that everything will have meaning in so far as it fits in the plan of GOd.  This somehow will all make sense.

All moments, all places, all times are pregnant with this expectation.
This is why we wait.  Our lives are pregnant with expectation.

Man is alive in so far as he waits.  The one who expects nothing can no longer live; but we who have hope wait with expectation and thus in our waiting we discover the true adventure for life is worth living.

What we do while we are waiting is just as important as what we are waiting for.  This is where we discover true meaning and purpose in life.

THus begins the season of Advent where we discover anew that the best is yet to come and we bring it forth by the love we bare in the lives we live, "May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all so as to strengthen your hearts to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord JEsus with all his holy ones."

Here is little Frank to get the Advent season moving in the right direction: The BEst is yet to come