Devotional 12-7-08

Anticipation

Please read Mark 1: 1-8

As I write this, it is October and our oldest daughter is preparing to go to her high school homecoming dance. So much to do. Will she be ready in time? She just called from the hairdressers’; she’s still waiting! We’ll go to the fountain at the park with all the other parents to take pictures. Plans are changing; everything is up in the air. She has been planning and expecting since she got her dress in August; things aren’t going just as she expected.

This is the context in which I sat down to write this Advent Devotional. And look at the gospel passage staring me in the face. It is about preparation and waiting. The Jews were waiting for the Messiah who would save them. The prophets had told of the coming of the Messiah that one would come before him who would be a voice in the wilderness crying, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” They had their own ideas about how the coming of the Messiah would take place. Things don’t always go as expected.

I am involved in the Walk to Emmaus, a spiritual renewal program of the United Methodist Church’s Upper Room Ministries. One of the guiding principles of a Walk to Emmaus weekend is “Don’t anticipate!” We would do well to adopt that attitude in our daily walk.

Anticipation leads to unrealistic expectations and, often, disappointment. Carly Simon wrote a song about anticipation that was made famous by a ketchup commercial: Anticipation is making me late, is keeping me waiting. We know it wasn’t really ketchup she was writing about, but that’s beside the point. When we anticipate, we are focused on the “not yet” and we might miss out on the “already.” Today is the day the Lord has made, and—think about it—today is the only day God made. At least it’s the only one God made today. If we get too focused on tomorrow, we will regret that we wasted this day. Carly Simon’s song concludes with a profound statement: These are…the good old days.

Many of us will be spending a great deal of time over the next weeks preparing for Christmas. We will sigh when it is over, and put everything away so that we can anticipate Easter. Perhaps our time would be better spent preparing our hearts to be the manger to cradle the Christ. Then when Christmas comes—when Jesus comes into our hearts—we will be ready to live! The Kingdom of God is here! These are the good old days!

Dear God, just as there was no room in the Inn for your son, too often there is no room in our hearts or lives for you. Prepare our hearts to receive you so that we can live out your love to the world. Amen.

Jeff Taylor