Advent begins today.
Advent is a season of waiting, hoping, and trusting. We wait again for the coming of Christ. We hope that in Christ’s coming all things will be made new. We trust that faith will one day become sight.
Each year we return to particular passages to ponder in light of this season of hopeful waiting. This year is no different. We will reflect and hope and pray.
As I grow older, I’m finding something new stirring in my soul. When I was younger, Advent brought a sense of excitement. It was a spiritual challenge to imagine—again and again—what it might feel like if Christ had not yet come. The philosopher Peter Rollins practices something he calls Atheism for Lent, and for a time I tried to take on a similar mindset during Advent.
But now something new has sprouted in me. The only word I have for it is longing.
