Is It Advent Yet?
My daughter and I often revisit the same topic, ask the same question: Is this the worst time the world has ever seen? The conversation is actually an exercise in reassuring ourselves. Inevitably, we land on the horrors of the relatively recent past that we can only imagine from black and white photographs. We invoke the genius filmmaker, Ken Burns, who assures us that things have indeed been worse. It’s just that these are the worst times we have actually lived through.
When I’m not being bombarded with the latest news of injustice and cruelty, I’m thinking more and more about the idea of advent, and what it means to wait and prepare. Anybody reading this is likely waiting… for the outcome of the midterms, for scoundrels to be exposed and get their comeuppance, and for meaningful change to systems and practices that hurt people. Like the John Mayer song says, “it's not that we don't care, we just know that the fight ain't fair. So, we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change.” Advent means waiting. It also means preparing. We have to do more than wait to see what happens to us, we have to prepare for the changes we want to see.
Last Wednesday, word spread quickly that the Irish songwriter, singer and actor, Glen Hansard had died at the age of 56. Among the many well-known musicians who took to social media to praise Hansard and share personal stories, I found the musician Rhiannon Giddens’s post to be deeply moving - both for its heartfelt words about what the loss of an artist like Hansard means for our world, and for its call to keep doing good in a world that has lost its mind. “What other option do we have but to keep putting good into the world,” she says. What other option do we have but to prepare as we wait, by putting what good we can into the world.
Holy One,
Be with us as we wait, and give us peace. Strengthen us to do our bit of good. Amen
Eli is a music leader at Peace.
“There been times that I thought
I couldn’t last for long
But now, I think I’m able
To carry on”
“It's been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come
Oh yes, it will”
A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke