As part of our preparations for Advent at Mount Olivet, we’ve put together a series of devotionals for the community. These devotionals can stand on their own or be read in conjunction with our weekly worship services. I hope you are blessed by them. The following is Ellen' McDowell’s offering for December 7, 2020.

The way of the righteous is level;
O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and your renown
are the soul’s desire.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness they deal perversely
and do not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but we acknowledge your name alone.
14 The dead do not live;
shades do not rise—
because you have punished and destroyed them,
and wiped out all memory of them.
15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land. - Isaiah 26:7-15

I’m writing this devotion on Election Day because I’m trying to pass time on this bizarre occasion in a mindful, mid-pandemic, sort of way. Anything to keep me from endlessly scrolling social media, refreshing the front pages of FiveThirtyEight and CNN. I’m waiting. Hopefully, this election is sorted out before you read this devotional.

This year has taught us a lot about waiting. Waiting for test results, for difficult decisions to be made, for the election results to come in. But, we’re also waiting for the heavier things; we are waiting on reform and justice and peace for the brokenhearted. Some of us have been waiting for a very long time for that.

Isaiah is calling the people of Israel to justice in the midst of injustice, for God’s righteousness to mightily fall across the land of their enemies. They are in essence saying, “even though everything is horrible now, we believe that it won’t always be.” They are filling the space, filling the waiting, with a prophetic petition for God’s goodness.

Waiting is a spiritual practice, isn’t it? It’s a chance to sit in the void of our present reality, awe at the emptiness we feel, and decide how we will fill it. Isaiah says that “At night I long for you with my whole being. My spirit within me watches for you”.

As we wait for the world to turn I have to ask myself:
Am I waiting well?
Am I looking for God in unexpected places?
Do I still see God’s children in terms of us and them?

This Advent let God’s grace illuminate the world around you while we wait… and wait.

Lord, help us wait well. Illuminate the hope we’re seeking, the neighbor we’re to love, and the peace you promised. Amen.

-Ellen McDowell