That is exactly what God desires to do for each us; to meet us where we are and take us to that place of rest and strength and hope. Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28) Isaiah tells us our strength is renewed when we wait upon / hope in the LORD. (Isaiah 40:31)
Advent is a season of waiting; of eager expectation that God will indeed break into our lives and bring us hope and rest and strength. But to find it we must learn to let go, to turn things over to God and to wait expectantly; a discipline that many of us find difficult--we do not like to wait, nor do we easily let go!
Henry Nouwen in The Path of Waiting, writes: I have found it very important in my own life to let go of my wishes and start hoping. It was only when I was willing to let go of my wishes that something new, something beyond my own expectations, could really happen to me. Just imagine what Mary was actually saying in the words, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me.” (Luke 1:38) She was saying, “I don’t know what this all means, but I trust that good things will happen.” She trusted so deeply that her waiting was open to all possibilities. And she did not want to control them. She believed that when she listened carefully, she could trust what was going to happen.
To wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. It is trusting that something will happen to us that is far beyond our own imaginings. It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life. It is living with the conviction that God moulds us according to His love and not according to our fears. The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance in a world preoccupied with control.
What would it mean to have God invade our lives?
Are you willing to open yourself up to that possibility?