Honestly, Advent, you snuck up on me. In my hustle and bustle, I TOTALLY forgot about you. And yet, here you are. Your presence slams the brakes on SO MUCH that I need to do. The shopping, the cooking, the parties, my work. ALL those things that divide my attention. Yet, unequivocally, you demand my attention. The inconvenience that you bring is not lost on me. Somehow you don’t care and here you are.
How will I deal with you this year? Is it time that I reconsider my relationship to you? Is it time for an attitude adjustment on my part? Whenever you come around, there are three undisputed options for how I could relate to you.
Advent, I could hate you. Because honestly, Advent, you challenge the very importance of me. I could be like Herod and respond with murderous hatred, because, truly, you interfere with my life. I wish to do what I want, when I want, and how I want, and honestly, Advent, you will not let me. That’s why I could choose to hate you.
Advent, another option, but which is no less hateful, is to view you with complete indifference, like the priests and scribes. Perhaps my complete indifference is nothing new to you. So many of us are so interested in the traditions, rituals, and ceremonies in which we participate during the Advent season that perhaps we lose sight of what the season is truly about.
Advent, perhaps I need to be like the wise men from the east who fell in adoring worship at the presence of the Christ child. Perhaps the thought that you, Advent, are the celebration of when the infinite glory of God joined the finite life of humanity in time and space, perhaps that thought should cause me to also fall in adoring worship. Advent, you remind me that this season is celebrated by those who have chosen to do what Christ compels them to do.
By focusing on adoring worship, Advent, you challenge all my preconceptions, hatreds, and insidious indifferences. Is it an act of worship to reconsider my materialistic attitude? Maybe it’s time to check my complicity in a consumerist-driven economic system that only looks at humanity as needing the latest “it” to find significance and purpose? I also need to reconsider my attitudes towards my fellow humans. Aren’t we all made “in the image of God?” Why is loving others ALWAYS so difficult?
But perhaps the biggest reconsideration I need to make is with you, Jesus Christ, the very reason for Advent. Have you truly been born in my heart? Do my actions truly speak of my great love for you? If, during the craziness of my daily existence, I lose track of you, what makes me think that in the busyness of the Advent season I will not lose sight of you as well? And yet, I desire to see you, not only every day of Advent, but also during my everyday existence.
Advent, you are an invitation to slow down so that I, we, won’t miss the presence of Jesus Christ, today and always, the reason for our adoring worship.
Josh Anguiano is the proud father of three amazing young adults. He lives, breathes, works, and, most importantly, loves La Sierra everyday.