How do you cope with waiting? Some of us struggle and feel desperate to get to the thing we’re waiting for. Others are more naturally serene, and can wait with patience for their situation to improve.

Advent begins this Sunday. It’s a time of waiting to celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas. What should we do with this time?

It’s a time to prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas. It’s a time to pray for the coming of Christ into our hearts and into the world. It’s a time to practise spiritual discipline.

Spiritual life is lived in the tension between Christ is here already and Christ is yet to come. There’s always thankfulness for what we have but also yearning for what’s yet to come. Christians live between thankfulness and yearning, so both active service and patient waiting are always aspects of faith.

During Advent we practise the yearning and the waiting, and this is a form of prayer.

May God guide and bless you through this Advent season.