The Oasis - March 30, 2022
Author: Pastor Dan Hollis
March 30, 2022
March 30, 2022
by Pastor Dan
What are you waiting for?
No, I don’t mean that as an accusation. I’m legitimately curious: what is it that you’re waiting for?
This time of year, I’d guess it’s a lot of things. I can imagine a lot of us are waiting for spring: for the weather to stop teasing us with warmth only to plummet back down below freezing again. Others are waiting for a sport to start, or a hunting season, or April vacation. Some are waiting for a test to come back, or a project to be over and done with. Many are waiting for good news, or for a visit with someone they haven’t seen in two years. Others are just waiting for their next meal.
And of course we wait for Easter, for the memory of Christ’s resurrection to inspire us to new life.
The season of Lent that we’re in right now is a season of waiting-in-the-hope-of. It’s like Advent in that way, when we await the birth of Christ into our lives once more on Christmas. We slog through the mud season of Lent in the knowledge that no matter how dark and cold our lives may get, Christ always rise again. The active, joyous, life-giving presence of Christ is always right around the next corner, waiting to fill our hearts with warmth and passion and the strength to do whatever comes next.
So we wait for Easter, and we wait for what comes next. And what comes after that. And what comes after that. We wait secure in the promise that all those things we are waiting for will come to pass. It’s only a matter of time. And with each passing day we get more and more excited. We prepare for it. We make way for it. We do the grocery shopping and we thaw out the roast. We get our shorts and skirts and bathing suits out of the depths of whatever closet or storage unit they’ve been in all winter. We launder the jerseys of our favorite team, and we tidy up our living rooms for visitors we can’t wait to see again.
What are you waiting for?
And how are you waiting for it?
“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” –Isaiah 40:31
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