The Meaning is in the Waiting

It struck me today that we are missing a huge aspect of this Holiday season. At the moment the Christmas season has gone into hyper drive. The Coca Cola Adverts have hit the TV and commercialism has a subtle but significant hold on our hearts and mind, and because of this we miss the season of waiting

Jesus was expected, for thousands of years, people were looking to the time that the Messiah was going to come and bring deliverance. The Season of Advent has been described as hopeful waiting in excitement.

But I think that waiting is a lost art. We have Microwaves and Credit Cards. We get excited about temporary things. In the US we launch from Thanksgiving to Christmas without the blink of an eye but we forget that there is a story of epic proportions behind the coming from and of Christ which has not been completed.

We need to remember that the story of Jesus isn't wrapped up in the nativity story. The old head of the Bank of England, Mervyn King once said that "The true meaning of Christmas will not be revealed until Easter - or possibly much later". He was talking about the economic surge expected through retail sales but I think he hit the nail on the head when thinking about the Jesus. The Story of Jesus is not over in Bethlehem. This what the introduction, that is the Old Testament, has been leading up to. But we need to remember that Jesus died. Rose from the dead.

And we are waiting, like those before his birth, for Christ to come.

That is something we need to remember. This story is not over. And I hope that sometime this advent season, you have a moment to sit and wait. A time to wait expectantly for the return of Christ.

Regrets

I was at shore recently, and as usual, I have a uncontrollable urge to just stare out to sea, out towards the horizon. It is mesmerizing.

It when whilst staring out into the great void that is the Atlantic Ocean that I got thinking about what is before me and what has passed.

In my head I couldn't stop thinking that I have a choice. A choice to either live a life full of regret. Regretting choices made (or not made), replaying them in my head, over and over until it envelops my entire existence. Devoting your thinking to the "what ifs".  Or I can take note of what has passed and let it mold you into a person that I want to be, learning from the things that I regret, seeking to look forward to a future, instead of replaying the past.

Johnny Cash is  a hero of mine, and he once said "You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." I agree with him

There are things I regret. Things I wish I did differently. But I want to take these regrets and make sure that they are a stepping stone to my future.