As a young girl growing up in the church, I was always encouraged to base my faith on Mary’s. After all, she’s the mother of Jesus. She’s the epitome of being used to bring the …

As a young girl growing up in the church, I was always encouraged to base my faith on Mary’s. After all, she’s the mother of Jesus. She’s the epitome of being used to bring the …
Perhaps, for people like Peter and me, part of the reason God sent Christ as a baby was to help us with our impatience and to reset our expectations. We need to understand that what the Kingdom is, how it will come, and when it will arrive, won’t always align with our expectations.
“Are you willing to be content in the expectation of Christ’s coming…to not jump to the end, but to relish in the journey leading to Christ’s coming? The adventure and joy of expectation.”
What should expectation during the Christmas season look like? Should we view it as being mixed with both hopefulness for our redemption and sadness for our sinfulness?
In Matthew 24, Jesus is admonishing his disciples to be prepared, to have their eyes and ears open, to be watching for Christ’s coming. It might seem silly to picture Jesus as a scoutmaster, but perhaps that isn’t a bad analogy?
When our faith feels weak—in our wilderness journeys, our spiritual hunger, our fear, our despair—we might ask God to strike us dumb.