The Forgotten Meaning of Advent

It is the advent season. All Christians have received their freshly printed, vibrant devotional books. Moms are asking for Christmas lists. Trees are up, and the booming voice of Nat King Cole fills the air. 

Yet, the anticipation and tension that should fill this season is missing. 

The advent season should be a season of remembering and recognition. 

It is to remember the waiting that Israel endured for the coming of a Savior, and it is the recognition that the church is still waiting for Him to return.

Yet…

The spiritual dissonance of waiting has disappeared. 

Bright lights, traditions, and Christmas carols muffle the tension of longing. 

Though this is a sad reality, it is unsurprising for modern-day America. Our culture is filled with answers at our fingertips, immediate feelings of validation, cancel culture, and the constant availability of apps meant to deflect, numb, and distract you. 

Longing is not a virtue. It is the very thing we avoid the most. 

So, what do we do when God calls us to celebrate a season of longing? How do we reach a place in our lives where we enjoy spiritual dissonance? 

You may have heard of cognitive dissonance, a psychological state of discomfort that occurs when a person's beliefs, values, or attitudes conflict with their actions. Alternatively, spiritual dissonance is a moment when what you know or believe about God doesn’t align with your feelings, thoughts, or reality, causing deep discomfort and wrestling in the soul. 

The Israelites lived this way for thousands of years, first, in Egypt, where they lived clinging to a promise made to their forefathers while they endured ruthless slavery. Then, from Exodus to Malachi, we see God’s promise of deliverance, salvation, and an intimate covenant over and over again, which is rejected by the very people who it was promised. Israel endured a plethora of seasons of oppression by bordering nations. Yet, they lived in a constant cycle of rebellion, consequential oppression, and redemption. God was doing something greater, though all of them couldn’t see it, so they came to believe. 

Despite their sin, they waited and let God build faith in them that salvation was coming. 

In the darkness of a night, in a dingy barn and a dirty manger, salvation did indeed come. 

It came as a baby—a baby that grew to live a perfect life, to become the perfect sacrifice, and to become the very life we experience today. Jesus was and is the promised salvation. It is at this time that we remember that our God does not speak empty promises but fulfills every single one. 

Yet, God has not ended the waiting for His people. 

The Church is waiting, too. It is waiting for the completeness of God’s redemption of His creation, Christ's second coming, face-to-face dwelling with our God, and the time when we will no longer walk by light but God’s glory alone. 

The picture above feels too distant at times for us. In the darkest moments, it can feel too hard to cling to because the world is so incredibly disappointing, and death’s reign on this Earth still feels too close. 

But in the Church, we have to hope in the spiritual dissonance. Our physical reality shows sin, death, and darkness, while our spiritual reality is one of compelling hope, everlasting joy, and eternal life. 

How do we live in spiritual dissonance? I assure you it is not avoidance, ignorance, or neglect of the call to wait. No, Church, there are things we should do with our spiritual dissonance while we wait for the return of our Lord. 

Pray

The longing for redemption should bring us to our knees. We should let the grief of this world lead us to pray like Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. Hannah prays with a deep emotional outpouring that the priest accuses her of being drunk. Our God is a big God and can handle our grief. He can actually do more than handle it, but Jesus’ resurrection shows us that He has overcome the very thing that causes such sorrow. 

Commune 

We cannot do this alone, nor are we created to be alone. We must be a people who cling to each other. We are waiting for a second coming and a wedding day! Jesus is returning to His beloved Bride. She is us, the Church. We are not ready for Him, but His return will be filled with glory when we are. Revelation 19 paints this picture: 

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God

    the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult

    and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

    and his Bride has made herself ready;

it was granted her to clothe herself

    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 

Church, let this cause deep groaning in our hearts and let our response be a constant fight for unity in the Church, reconciliation with one another, and a deep love for our local body of believers. 

Obey

In Jesus, we are a new creation. The way we live demands this. We do not cling to the idols, traditions, and dead things of this world. We are to get out of the grave and run to the Kingdom that is promised to be here already and is yet to come. I will confess that something about December makes me feel like all my sins come out. The long dark days, the months of hard labor, and the posture from abiding in Christ to abiding in myself is my undoing. Yet, I know I am not the only one. We have turned into people who just survive this world. But Jesus does not call us to obey through survival. He calls us to life and life abundantly. Life abundantly is a life of abiding in Christ, living and loving like Christ. We seek out the Kingdom where we are, we proclaim the gospel, and we love one another so that they will know we are His disciples (John 13:35).

Worship 

Our God delights in our worship of Him. Worship brings to mind a band and songs and hands raised. But I think true worship is the constant exultation of God in everything we do. It is a reminder that I should praise Him for giving me the words for this blog, the breath to be alive to write, and the knowledge of His word to share. It is the ever-flowing remembrance of His character and the praise that goes with it. Church, this is what we are looking for deep, eternal worship of God, and we should start now. 

Church, learn to live in the spiritual dissonance. The yet and not yet. The here and now and what is to come. The celebration of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and the expectation that He will soon return just as He has promised.