Watching, Waiting, and Awakened
Twenty Fifth Day of Advent. Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Dear friends,
We conclude Advent where we started twenty-five days ago. Our journey is the same as it was then: to watch for our Lord’s presence, to wait for His return, and to stay alert, looking for His reign to unfold in us and in the world!
Eugene Peterson’s introduction to the Thessalonian letters in The Message captures this journey as we conclude the Advent season.
The way we conceive the future sculpts the present, gives contour and tone to nearly every action and thought through the day. If our sense of future is weak, we live listlessly. Much emotional and mental illness and most suicides occur among men and women who feel that they “have no future.” The Christian faith has always been characterized by a strong and focused sense of future, with belief in the Second Coming of Jesus as the most distinctive detail. From the day Jesus ascended into heaven, his followers lived in expectancy of his return. He told them he was coming back. They believed he was coming back. They continue to believe it. For Christians, it is the most important thing to know and believe about the future. The practical effect of this belief is to charge each moment of the present with hope. For if the future is dominated by the coming again of Jesus, there is little room left on the screen for projecting our anxieties and fantasies. It takes the clutter out of our lives. We’re far more free to respond spontaneously to the freedom of God.
The broad scope of the Scriptures reminds us that we can respond openly and freely to God's work for a coming kingdom. Then, as Peterson reminds us, we have little room left on the screen..., and it clears the clutter from our lives.
God’s people have always faced the threat that their current circumstances could change. How we see the danger today may differ, but one thing is certain: the Lord will come again, and our mission is clear: to walk as God’s people who speak with the voice of the prophets and to act as Jesus showed us. Perhaps it's best summed up by the prophet Micah.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
Merry Christmas, everyone. Our Lord comes.
Watching and waiting,
