No Fear

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Sunday Scripture Reading: Luke 21:25-36 (NRSV)

25 “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. Read more…

Looking to Sunday: Preparing to Hear From God

by Elaine Poproski

Waiting.

I really dislike waiting.

The summer after I graduated with my Masters’ degree, ready and excited for God to call me to my first church was almost physically painful. Even as my classmates and I were completing final assignments and celebrating our graduation together, many of them were interviewing with church search committees and fielding phone calls from people who presumably thought they’d be a great pastor in their church. No one called me. I had no interviews.

It felt like a cruel joke by God. You see, I went into the degree program with no intention of becoming a pastor (even though I was in the program most known for preparing people to be pastors). I didn’t know exactly what God was calling me to, but I knew for sure it wasn’t pastoral ministry. And then God went to work, slowly and patiently building my confidence, answering my questions, and correcting my attitude until I not only knew He was calling me to be a pastor, but I was excited to get into it.

And then no one called.

No one.

I moved all my belongings to the summer camp at which I’d worked the previous summer and jumped into another busy season of camp ministry. And I waited for someone to call.  But no one called. Was it all a cruel joke? Had God really gone to all the trouble of getting me into seminary (that’s what the kind of school is called where people study to be pastors) and getting me excited about being a pastor, only to having no church for me at the other end? That’s not the kind of God I’d come to know over the years, but that didn’t change the fact that no one was calling.

What a horrible time the waiting time sometimes is. It challenges our faith. It calls into question everything we thought we knew about God. Is He really good? Is He really faithful? Does He really provide? Did He really make a promise to me?

Advent is about waiting. It’s about waiting for God to fulfill all those promises He made over hundreds of years. It’s about waiting for what’s wrong in the world to be set right. It’s about waiting for God’s kingdom to come in all its fullness.

This Sunday, as we gather for our second week of Advent, we’ll be invited to join Zechariah and Elizabeth in their waiting. We’ll be challenged to consider our own attitudes in our own waiting. And we’ll be reminded that no matter what it feels like or what you’re thinking when you’re in the middle of the waiting, God is good, God is faithful, and God really does provide. As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps spend some time considering those things for which you are waiting. Imagine yourself holding onto them in tight hands and then open your hands and give those things – that waiting – to God.

And in case you’re wondering, someone did finally call. It was the last week of summer. There was only one week left of camp. A search committee called, I answered, and my life as a pastor began 2½ months later.