Stop. Wait. Breathe.

The pace of life gets faster and faster and faster. Electronic communication – particularly social media – has become an accelerant.

We see something, hear something, read something and we react. We like, comment and retweet. The unexpressed thought is becoming an endangered species … it’s simply too easy to launch whatever is at the front of our minds through the tips of our fingers.

We expect immediate responses from one another … after all the average smartphone user spends four hours a day looking at its screen. And our communications bounce back and forth to one another in what seems like subatomic speed.

This is not an argument against emails or social media. But it is a reminder that we have power over the pace at which we live our lives. Our technologies were meant to serve us, not the other way around. The increasing pace of communication, of expectation, of life itself is not a fast track we are tied to.

We can. We must.
Stop. Wait. Breathe.
Advent dawns as the days are getting their shortest. It bids us slow down.
Stop. Wait. Breathe.

Advent invites us to remember that God comes as liberator from all that enslaves us. From the tyranny of fascism, the tyranny of poverty, the tyranny of injustice and the tyranny of the clock and the smartphone.
Advent invites us to remember that God’s voice of love is still and small. It comes in the middle of the night – and to hear it we need to

Stop. Wait. Breathe.
Advent invites our minds to expand.
To dream.
To imagine unimagined possibilities.

Advent invites us to turn off our phones and gaze at the stars, wondering which one might guide us to God breaking into our life in new ways.

Advent invites us to look away from the screen and into each other’s eyes. To feel our hearts beat as one. To share the deep stories of our lives. To realize that we are not alone. Never alone. Never, never, ever alone.
Advent invites us into that place of anticipation. The itch we can’t immediately scratch. The thirst we cannot immediately slake.

Advent is a long slow walk on the beach with no cell service.
Advent is watching a caterpillar crawl up a leaf.
Advent is getting to the ballpark two hours early, sitting in the upper deck behind home plate and watching batting practice.

In an age of tweeting, Advent is the overseas letter that traveled for four weeks until it reached its destination … and you hold it in your hands forever before opening it because you realize your beloved held it in her hands and you want to savor the moment.

Advent is time to
Stop. Wait. Breathe.

This Advent, how will you do it?
How will you make space for your heart to slow down.
How will you create the quiet space where you can hear God whispering her love in your ear.

This Advent, how will you grasp the freedom that Christ offers … the freedom over the hamster wheel that so often can become our lives.

This Advent, how will you
Stop. Wait. Breathe.

Mike Kinman is the Rector of All Saints Church. This piece was written for the December issue of our monthly magazine Saints Alive … which you can read in its entirety here or subscribe to here.