Pastor Taylor Shippy - Micah 5:1-5a; Galatians 4:4-7
Waiting is hard. It is a realm of discomfort, uncertainty and even anxiety. A place where we’re given little to no control. A place that is disorienting and suffocating. A place where our vision of the future is clouded and foggy. A place where the presence of God is felt more at a distance and the sound of His voice is often muffled. It’s a place eerily resembling the “valley of the shadow of death” (Ps 23:4). But do we have the faith and confidence to say, in the waiting, “I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me” (Ps 23:4). The season of Advent teaches us that something is happening in the waiting, in the longing, in the silence -- that even nothing is indeed something. Advent reminds us that we can be confident, even hopeful, in waiting, anticipating the manifestation of God’s redeeming because of "living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Pet 1:3).
