However, last Fall, I started having problems with this usually all-star machine. “Instant On” became, suddenly, a chore. Just getting to “on,” let alone “instant” took lots of time. Features that were usually just there were gone. Then came the dreaded, permanent “spinning beach ball.” My computer and I had a real problem. My computer, that was built for peak performance intended for making life better for anyone who interacted with it (that’s mostly me), was suddenly unable to do what it was designed to do. The sluggish and incomplete replaced the snappy and totally ready to go.
Thankfully, I had opted for the computer maker’s “care” plan when I made my purchase, so I called them. The help technician kindly inquired about my difficulty, and in his questioning we realized together that in the then-18 month life of the computer – I’d never turned it completely off. Not once. The technician told me that since I had never turned it off, it didn’t have time to rest, and that it was in a constant state of storing up programs and files for readiness so that it could no longer actually be ready. I could see his finger wagging at me as, after we entered some tortuous restarting codes to get rid of all that “readiness” that had piled up, to turn the computer all the way off at least twice a week, which I still do.
Advent is the church’s season for preparation for Christ, both in remembrance of what Jesus incarnation meant and means, and for what His Parousia (Yep. If you don’t know what that word means, I hereby ask you to look it up) means and will mean. Just like the state I inadvertently got my great computer into, we could be REALLY busy getting REALLY prepared for Jesus, piling up so much “readiness” that when His time for us to be “on” really comes, we can’t do what needs to be done – because come it will. When we’re properly prepared, opportunities for obedience to our Lord – to be really on and ready – come every day.
The Bible’s book of Luke has a story about a young girl named Mary who God needed to do something very special: To be God’s vessel through which Jesus – God’s son – would be born. Talk about “readiness!” Infant Jesus was going to need a prepared human mother, so after she learned that she was pregnant with God’s Son, here’s what she did:
A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” … Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. Luke 1:39-45, 56 (NLT)
For what were probably a lot of different reasons, among them perhaps being very young and unmarried yet pregnant, Mary did something to prepare for Jesus’ coming: She went away. She left her home, she left her routines, and she got away. She turned “off” so that she could be really ready to be “on” when Jesus finally arrived in circumstances that certainly were not ideal.
Friends, I know. There’s just so much to do to get ready for Christmas. God’s gift in Jesus is so grounding, so special, and so defining. God’s appearing in human form rightfully frames the many good and “on” acts of generosity, time, presence and hospitality with which we’ll busy ourselves this Advent. But please don’t overlook your own readiness to receive Jesus. From time to time over the next month, turn off from the yuletide busyness so that when Christ’s presence in Christmas beckons you to be “on” – you can ready in an instant for doing what God designed you to do: Making life more complete for anyone who needs you.
