(this is an updated version of a post I originally wrote in 2017)

In a letter to his fiancee Maria von Wedmeyer written in a Nazi prison in December 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten...Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting—that is, of hopefully doing without—will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment...For the greatest, most profound, tenderest things in the world we must wait.

It is hard for me to imagine Bonhoeffer writing about impatience in the world in 1943. To us today, that world seems like it must have been an infinitely slower, more relaxed, more manageable, nearly old-fashioned time having more in common with Little House on the Prairie than contemporary America. For after all, this was all before the age of the internet, smartphones, social media, microwaves...even before most households had televisions. How many among us long for a simpler time, willing even--we think--to give up modern 'essentials' in the quest for simplicity?

Impatience is a product of dissatisfaction. Those who are satisfied have nothing for which they must wait. All their needs are met. They lack nothing and are completely satisfied.

Our culture is impatient because it is not satisfied. Paradoxically, though we have more things in abundance than even kings and queens had a few centuries ago, we are anything but satisfied, constantly wanting more. We want more and we are unwilling to wait for it. Those of us living near Amazon distribution centers don't even have to wait for that 'old-fashioned' two-day shipping...we can get many things the same day we click the 'Buy Now' button!

Among Christian culture, there is little in this regard to separate us from the secular culture that surrounds us. We, too, are in a hurry to go straight from Thanksgiving to Christmas. No lines, no waiting. No patience. No anticipation. No need for the outdated 'Catholic' season of Advent. Let's sing Christmas carols right now, we insist with literal or metaphorically clenched fists like Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as we echo her words, "I want it NOW!"

As Christians, we should be dissatisfied, but for none of the same reasons as our culture. While we may find contentment in our physical circumstances (cf. Phil 4.11), we must never be satisfied with our spiritual condition. We must never be satisfied with the way things are in this world. We are waiting, expectantly I trust, for Christ's return, the new heavens and new earth, and eternity in the tangible presence of God. Things are not as they should be right now. Things are not as they will ultimately be.

So we wait--always looking forward with anticipation to the realized blessings of Immanuel, God with us, at his return. In other words, the whole of the Christian life is one of waiting, anticipation and hope. We do not share our society's Pollyanna-ish "hope" for a better tomorrow based on platitudes and positive thinking. No, our hope is certain, a faithful hope in the promises of God, which are sure to come to pass in his time. Precisely because God's timing is not our timing we must practice waiting—and why we need a time of Advent to hone our skills. If we can't bear to faithfully wait through three or four weeks of Advent season, our lives are going to be absolutely miserable.

Advent is a training ground for the rest of our Christian walk.

Photo by Matthew Henry on [Unsplash]