One of my favorite Advent songs comes from Tom Petty.
the waiting is the hardest part
every day you see one more card
you take it on faith, you take it to the heart
the waiting is the hardest part
Though the baby he’s talking to in the song has nothing to do with Bethlehem, his chorus is right on target. What follows here isn’t so much a song as a collection of verses, if you will—quotes—that will use our chorus as the cognitive tissue to make it an advent hymn of sorts. Sing along where you can.
I know we often talk about waiting as expectation during this season, but in days like these, it feels like the scene that comes to my mind is from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where Mr. Tumnus describes the Winter Queen to the children who have just arrived in Narnia and says, “It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter, and never Christmas; think of that!”
the waiting is the hardest part
every day you see one more card
you take it on faith, you take it to the heart
the waiting is the hardest part
In Fiddler on the Roof, Motel, the tailor, speaks just after the villagers of Anatevka learn they are going to have to leave their home for no other reason than they are Jewish.
MOTEL: “Rabbi, we’ve been waiting for the messiah all our lives. Wouldn’t this be a good time for him to come?”
RABBI: “We’ll have to wait for him some place else.”
Sing it again–
the waiting is the hardest part
every day you see one more card
you take it on faith, you take it to the heart
the waiting is the hardest part
Howard Thurman wrote, “Patience, in the last analysis, is only partially concerned with time, with waiting; it includes also the quality of relentlessness, ceaselessness and constancy. It is the mood of deliberate calm that is the distilled result of confidence.” (Deep is the Hunger 54)
the waiting is the hardest part
every day you see one more card
you take it on faith, you take it to the heart
the waiting is the hardest part
These words from Meister Eckhart find me every year: “We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time. When the Son of God is begotten in us.”
the waiting is the hardest part
every day you see one more card
you take it on faith, you take it to the heart
the waiting is the hardest part
Peace,
Milton
I read and re read the quote by Howard Thurman.
Thank you.
I keep doing the same thing.
Thank you for your Advent readings. This one especially resonates with me.