Advent - Romans 8:24-25

Q: What does it look like for you to actively but patiently wait for God right now?

"What does it look like" often causes me to think about hwo someone else might observe my life in relation to the question. This comes up a lot in theology/fellowship discussions "what does it look like for..." and then we talk about practical things that humans can do that we can see with our eyes.

But in my faith journey, as I have seen God's faithfulness to me and my family, my mind is not immediately going to outward looking things...

For example "What does it look like for Christians to live differently than others?" and the answers are always the same "we love our enemies", "protestant work ethic - Christians should work harder since we work for an audience of One", "We don't cuss"... etc. Things that someone could conceivably witness and then potentially draw the conclusion of the question (which is that Christians ought to live differently than non-Christians)

So I see these 2 ways of thinking about the "what does it look like" question - the outward observable perspective, but then an inward one

I guess outwardly, there are some answers where someone might observe it and then conclude that I am waiting actively and patiently for the Lord... Here are some examples:

1. Our Advent wreath on the dining table, anyone who enters out home will see it (as do I every day which reminds me of the active waiting)
2. This blog - anyone who finds my posts should no doubt observe that my life has been claimed by Jesus and I'm living my life to that end by his grace

But inwardly, in the secret... I think some reality is continuing to sink in that is a byproduct of witnessing God's faithfulness to me... The way it looks for me to actively but patiently wait on the Lord is to just walk day by day in the life he's given me... It's a great life - beautiful family, decent work, beyond decent compensation - in a lot of ways I'm living the American Dream and God has been so good to me. My patience and activity I hope are not so much manifested by my will but moreso may they be acts of trust in a God who has shown himself worth trusting.

So, for me, "what does it look like?" is it looks like trusting when I'm frustrated, it looks like breathing when circumstances aren't what I wanted, and it looks like putting one foot in front of the other in daily faithful life to Jesus...