The Oasis - April 10, 2019
Author: Rev. Dan Hollis
April 10, 2019
April 10, 2019
Pastor Dan Hollis
What are you waiting for?
No, I don’t mean that as an accusation. I’m legitimately curious: what is it that you are waiting for?
This time of year, I’d say it’s a lot of things. For me as I write this it’s yesterday, and I’m looking out the windows of my office at this weird cold slushy stuff coming out of the sky. (I’m a fairly proficient touch-typer.) I can imagine a lot of us are waiting for spring… for these few teasing days of warmth to become the norm, not the exception. Even as I write this I’m watching the falling slush bit-by-bit turn into falling snow, and it truly is magical. But boy am I waiting for spring.
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 news, or a visit, or a big dinner party coming up. Others are just waiting for their next meal.
As a pastor, I’m sure you can imagine what I’m waiting for most this time of year.
That’s right, the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere on April 14th at 9/8c.
Oh, and Easter too. You know, the blessed resurrection of Christ Jesus that we commemorate each year on the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after March 21st.
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 in our lives anew on Christmas. We slog through the mud season of Advent in the knowledge that no matter how dark and cold our lives may get, Christ will come 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… make the 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 the Game of Thrones watch-parties to come.
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
Song I’m listening to these days: “Kara Remembers,” by Bear McCreary.
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