A standalone study on what Advent is, why the church waits, and how to practice hope in the gap between the first and second coming of Jesus.
The Big Question
What is Advent, and why does waiting actually matter to the Christian life? Advent is the season the church keeps in the weeks before Christmas. The word means arrival. It is set aside as a time to wait for Jesus, and that waiting points in two directions at once. It looks back to the first arrival, when God came as a baby in Bethlehem. It looks forward to the second arrival, when Christ returns to finish what he started. This study walks through what that waiting actually teaches, and why hope grows deeper, not weaker, when you refuse to rush past the longing.
Practice of Waiting: Naming What You Are Waiting On
Begin here, before anything else in this study. Michelle Higgins says Advent is built entirely on the word arrival, which assumes something has not happened yet.
“Advent comes from an ancient tradition of waiting. The word advent means arrival. What's funny is that we live in Advent every day.” (Michelle Higgins, Truth's Table)
Take this literally this week. Write down one thing in your own life you are genuinely waiting on God for, healing, provision, reconciliation, direction, the return of someone you love to faith. Do not rush to fix it, explain it, or pray it away. Simply name it, the way Advent asks you to name your longing for Christ before you celebrate his arrival.
Practice of Waiting: Holding Two Truths in the Same Breath
Advent holds two arrivals together, the first coming already accomplished and the second coming still ahead. Dr. Christina Edmondson refuses to collapse that tension into one comfortable half.
“He is worthy of waiting for. And he is already here with us.” (Dr. Christina Edmondson, Truth's Table)
This week, practice saying both halves of that sentence about your own waiting. God is already near to you in whatever you are walking through, and God has not yet finished his work in it. Resist the urge to pick only the comforting half or only the urgent half. Advent asks you to live inside both.
Practice of Waiting: Making Room for Lament Alongside Joy
Waiting can look passive from the outside, but Higgins describes Advent as full, not empty, holding penitence, petition, and outright lament alongside real celebration.
“What I really love about the season of preparation is the joy and the celebration, and the deep sense of hope that comes during these seasons of penitence, petition, and outright lament.” (Michelle Higgins, Truth's Table)
Practice this directly this week: let yourself name one real grief or frustration out loud in prayer, without immediately following it with an apology for feeling it. Then, in the same prayer, name one thing you are genuinely grateful for. Advent does not ask you to choose between lament and joy. It asks you to hold them in the same hand.
Practice of Waiting: Refusing to Rush the Season
The culture around you is built to skip straight to the gifts. Advent asks you to sit in the not-yet before the already, on the theory that the waiting itself shapes how deeply you receive what finally arrives.
“What I love about the black tradition is knowing a God who is already here, who has not yet fulfilled completely the liberation of his people.” (Michelle Higgins, Truth's Table)
Pick one small, concrete way to slow the season down this week rather than letting it sweep you along. Light a candle each evening and name what you are waiting for before you do anything else that night. Read one Advent Scripture passage instead of scrolling. Tell one person what you are actually hoping for this Christmas, beyond the gift list.
Practice of Waiting: Starting Without a Liturgical Background
If Advent feels like something that belongs to a tradition you did not grow up in, take heart from Higgins herself. She did not grow up keeping Advent either, and adopted it as an adult once she understood what it was actually for.
You do not need candles, a formal calendar, or years of practice to begin. A short daily Scripture reading, a single sentence of prayer naming what you are waiting for, said with real attention rather than rushed through, is enough to start. The goal this week is not getting the form right. It is training your attention toward the longing the season exists to hold.
Scripture to Sit With
- Luke 1:26-38. The angel comes to Mary and announces the arrival of the King. The first Advent begins with a young woman who is told to wait and trust before she can see the promise.
- Luke 1:46-55. Mary's song, the Magnificat. She holds praise and protest together, naming what God fills and what God humbles while she waits. It is the voice of someone who hopes in the dark and names what is wrong at the same time.
- Luke 2:25-38. Simeon and Anna have waited their whole lives to see the Messiah. They are pictures of patient longing that finally meets its arrival in the temple.
- Isaiah 9:2 and 9:6. The people walking in darkness see a great light, and a child is given. The hope of Advent is light promised before it fully dawns.
Quotes Worth Discussing
“Advent comes from an ancient tradition of waiting. The word advent means arrival.” (Michelle Higgins, Truth's Table)
“What I really love about the season of preparation is the joy and the celebration, and the deep sense of hope that comes during these seasons of penitence, petition, and outright lament.” (Michelle Higgins, Truth's Table)
“He is worthy of waiting for. And he is already here with us.” (Dr. Christina Edmondson, Truth's Table)
“Bitterness would be the reality of the pain, the suffering, detached from hope. It's enduring and it's festering.” (Dr. Christina Edmondson)
Discussion Questions
- Where in your own life are you living in the gap, waiting on God for something he has promised but not yet delivered? Name it out loud to the group if you are able.
- Higgins says the season holds lament and joy at the same time. Is it hard for you to feel both at once? Which one do you tend to skip?
- Think about how you usually spend the weeks before Christmas. What would it actually change if you slowed down to wait instead of rushing to the celebration?
- Edmondson says God is already here and yet has not finished. How does holding both of those truths change the way you pray this week?
- Mary, Elizabeth, Simeon, and Anna all waited. Whose story of waiting feels closest to where you are right now, and why?
Go Deeper
This study draws on the Jude 3 Project podcast episode on Advent with the hosts of Truth's Table, recorded with host Lisa Fields. To go further, listen to the Truth's Table podcast, where Ekemini Uwan, Dr. Christina Edmondson, and Michelle Higgins talk through faith, race, and culture. For a related study on the historical case behind what the church is ultimately waiting to fully see fulfilled, see Resurrection: Fact or Fiction? with Dr. Michael Licona.
A Closing Reflection
Pick one practice for this week. Each morning, before you reach for your phone, sit for two minutes and name one thing you are waiting on God for. Do not rush to fix it or explain it away. Just hold the longing and the hope in the same breath, the way Advent teaches. Then read a few verses from Luke 1 and 2 and watch how the people who waited finally met what they were waiting for, not a moment before they were ready to receive it.
If you lead a group through this study, resist the temptation to move quickly through the four practices to get to the discussion questions. Each one is meant to be lived in for the better part of a week, not checked off in one sitting. The whole point of Advent is that waiting cannot be rushed without losing what it was for, and that is just as true of a study about waiting as it is of the season itself.