Three Days of Advent

Christmas is just three days away and I am finally taking time to reflect on the season of advent. Between working long hours on a short film, scrambling to change my airline tickets to come home early, and having lunches with LA friends before holiday break, my body, let along my mind, has not been still. Sitting in the house I grew up in, I can finally take a moment to ponder the season, and this season of my life.

I often think of advent as a period of waiting, but it really is one of preparing. The word “advent” comes from the Latin for “to come to” and during this season we refer to the coming of Christ as a baby 2000+ years ago, but, more importantly, should focus on the coming of Christ in our lives here and now.  So, as the dust settles from my busy December, I pause to see how Christ is working in my life.

I just returned from a coffee date with a friend and former co-worker. When we worked together at a small Christian college in the suburbs of Chicago, our lunches were spent of conversations of our writing, as we each dreamed of a day when we were no longer forced to relegate our writing to a part-time, after-work activity. And today, there we sat, two freelance writers living our dream… of hustling and living one payday to the next. I mean, living the dream of claiming the title “writer” as our profession.

As I relayed experiences from my first five months in Los Angeles, I talked of some prospects on the horizon and some promising meetings I had. Now, as I have said to numerous people in my few days home for the holidays, if there is one thing I have learned in my short time in LA, it is that at any point up until you are standing on set, things can fall apart completely. Actually, even then there is a chance things could fall apart. So, I understand that “promising meetings” aren’t something to bank on.

However, as a person of hope, I generally try to find the positive in a situation, or at the very least, the lesson to be learned. A lesson that has been presented to me multiple times recently (and if have read my blogs, you know I think you should pay attention to things you hear three times in a short window of time!) is that God will give you opportunities, but you need to be ready for them. If I believe that I am in LA because God has led me there, I need to remember that God will open doors for me but he won’t push me through or do the work for me.

So, these promising meetings could lead to some really great opportunities, some doors that I didn’t dare dream would have been opened so soon after moving to my new home. As I relay the conversations –and the work that they will result in for me – it hit home that I need to be prepared to do the work I will be called to do.

There is a saying that “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.” I do believe that to be true – I could never have made my film “Broken & Beautiful” without all the blessings God rained down on me and that project. However, the further you walk with God, trusting him to lead you to opportunity he has called you to, you have to be preparing along the way. He will equip you with opportunity, but you have to be ready to be equipped to capitalize on said opportunity.

So, as I take three precious days to enjoy the remains of advent and ponder what is “to come” – the great gift of Jesus in our world and in my life – I will carry the spirit of preparing into 2016.