How to turn on your bathroom faucet (Advent)

Honestly, in writing this post I feel like I'm pointing out something painfully obvious. As if I were straining to make clear to you the beautiful depth of the fact that you must turn the handle and then the water will come out of the faucet or that you must flip the switch and then the light will come on. As if that should amaze you to finally discover, after all these years, why you couldn't work your bathroom sink or your bedroom light.

But sometimes it is the smallest, most obvious things that I overlook. The little things that grab me and whirl me around astonished. It's often the most natural things that have been lost to me. All the upright things come as a surprise to the one who was born standing on his head.

So this morning as I read:

"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised"

It struck me as both starkly plain and amazingly new. Why?  Because I live backwards. Scripture says you persevere in doing the will of God and then you get what was promised. Too often I complain about how I can't do what God is asking me to do because I want to have the reward first to motivate me. I'm always out of order! I want to taste the candy and then pay for it (and pay for it I do, unfortunately). 

This Advent season, I'm hearing the call to be faithful. Whether the joy or the peace or the hope I wish for is apparent, to persevere, do the will of God and then... 

"in just a little while, 

he who is coming will come

and will not delay."