Advent or Anxiety?
By Hollie Wohlwend
Hollie is a 3rd year student at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She is a member of Central Baptist Church of Fountain City in Knoxville, Tennessee.

In society today, even in religious spheres, the words "anxiety" and "Advent" are nearly synonymous. Although the Christmas cards we send and the carols we sing are full of greetings and lyrics that speak of "peace" and "joy" and "silent nights," our lives rarely seem to reflect any such states of existence in the days and weeks that lead up to the holidays. Just imagine the scene in the food court or the parking lot of your local mall the Saturday before Christmas.

Impatience…aggression…selfishness…Most of us feel hurried, stressed, wearied, and nothing short of anxious about all that must get done before we can catch a breath and begin to enjoy the season. Do we ever enter into this season as prepared and expectant people? I, for one, rarely do.

Anxiety and fear go hand in hand. By definition, anxiety is a state of apprehension. Webster defines the term as "a state of being uneasy or worried about what may happen." This powerful force takes hold of our minds and becomes an enemy to worship, (surely one of Satan's favorite forces for this reason), and can effectively keep us from prayer, reflection, thanksgiving, praise, and celebration. Sadly, our anxious hearts may be the biggest obstacle to any proper observance of Advent. What are we missing by holding tight to our fears and not taking the time to rest and reflect? What is the purpose of Advent anyway?

By definition, Advent is a season or state of preparation. We as believers are to spend the weeks leading up to Christmas as a time of reflection and meditation, preparing ourselves for the celebration of Christ's coming - both remembering His birth and anticipating His second coming. This is a critical season of consideration, designed to instill in us a sense of wonder and anticipation. We consider what God has done in history by coming to us in the form of a baby born in a real city to human parents in a real moment in time. And, we consider what this act meant - how it ushered in our hope of salvation and how we can hope even now that Christ will one day return and put an end to all anxiety, suffering, and death. If we properly participated in this season, Advent might well change our perspectives, offering us a new outlook on life and a fresh glimpse of the splendor and mystery of God.

G.F. Handel used Isaiah 40 as a text for much of his musical masterpiece, The Messiah. What could be more of an antidote to so much of our modern anxieties than these words of comfort and instruction?

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God; speak ye comfortably to Jersualem; and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Is. 40:1-3)

…O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; life it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! (Is. 40:9)

He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
(Is. 40:11)

Isaiah speaks of comfort, pardon, joy, release from fear, rest for the weary and weak, and protection. Surely these thoughts and hopes, not anxiety, should characterize our Advent seasons.

I know that I am going to have to make a concerted effort not to let anxiety take hold of me this holiday season. I will graduate from seminary in December and need to make a number of fairly major decisions about my future in the coming weeks. Everything in me wants to be anxious! I want to worry about finishing the last few school assignments, finding a job, paying off graduate loans, and starting a new phase of life. But is this any way to prepare for the celebration of Christ's coming? If I give into the temptation to allow fear and worry to consume my thought life, I may miss out on the lessons and blessings God may want to send this way. Rather than fearing and fretting about things that may or may not happen, my prayer needs to be that I will allow God to send His comforts and revelations this way. May God find in each of us expectant, rather than anxious, minds and hearts prepared to receive His coming.

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