I’ve never taken Advent as seriously as I have this year. Maybe it’s because I’m weary of the hoopla that the secular world has injected into the season. Maybe it’s because this year has been a remarkable and profound spiritual journey for Dustin and me. Maybe I’m finally realizing that this is what I need at this time of the year. While the world lays in winter slumber, I am discovering that I, too, need to find rest and peace in my faith. While listening to the song “While You Were Sleeping” by Casting Crowns this Sunday, I realized this is what I wanted to talk about.
Oh, little town of Bethlehem
Looks like another silent night
Above your deep and dreamless sleep
A giant star lights up the sky
And while you’re lying in the dark
There shines an everlasting light
For the King has left His throne
And is sleeping in a manger tonight
Oh, Bethlehem, what you have missed
While you were sleeping
For God became a man
And stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping
There couldn’t have been a more perfect way for the Son to come into the world. If He was going to come to teach us humility, service, and love than it had to be in this most humble of ways. We don’t know exactly when our Lord was born, but that is not what matters to me. What matters it the way He chose to come–a helpless baby born to a young devoted mother. I often think about what that night must have been like. What must have been going on in Mary’s head as she held the Savior of the World after she delivered Him? It’s always so surreal for us to hold our children that have just been born, so I can only imagine how much more surreal it was for her.
Nobody sleeping in Bethlehem had any idea that the Savior of the World had just arrived. They had no idea that the world would forever be changed by His coming. If they were expecting the Savior to be someone who came with great fanfare, riches, and accolades, they were mistaken.
Oh, little town of Jerusalem
Looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son
The way, the truth, the life had come
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save
Jerusalem, what you have missed
While you were sleeping?
The Savior of the world
Is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping
There couldn’t have been a more genuine act of love than His dying on the cross for us. If He was going to show us how to truly love one another, then there is no better way to show that than to give His life for those who nailed Him there. In the minds of those witness to that day, a real king would never of allowed this to happen to him. He would have used his awesome might and power and crushed those that chose to persecute him. But, this was not the message Jesus was trying to send. He wanted us to lead others through sacrifice, service, and love. These were foreign ideas then and they are still hard for us to grasp today.
Nobody in Jerusalem, save a few people, had an inkling of what was truly taking place that day. So many were taking rest in their own pride, power, and understanding. If they were expecting the Savior to be someone who wielded his might around and placed himself on an earthly throne surrounded by riches, they were mistaken.
United States of America
Looks like another silent night
As were sung to sleep by philosophies
That save the trees and kill the children
And while were lying in the dark
Theres a shout heard cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned
And has carried His bride away in the night
America, what will we miss
While we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again
And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping?
Will we be sleeping?
There couldn’t be a more obvious growing neglect and dismissal of Jesus in our country. The more apathetic we become about our faith, the more that turn away because they feel they are being duped by some fairy tale, the more we fail to live out our Christian calling, the more we suffer. We are failing each other in our quest for personal happiness and satisfaction. We so often choose this path, yet who of us is inspired by those that seek only their glory? Who of us is inspired by those that wrap themselves up in pride and riches? Not many I’m sure. Yet, who is inspired by Christ’s teachings of sacrifice, love, and service? Who isn’t inspired by those that shed themselves of the chains of slavery to pride, greed, lust, and anger? Most of us are inspired by those that live counter to what the world tells us we are entitled to.
Nobody in America, save a few people, truly grasp the negative impact our apathy is having or will have. We are sleeping through this life, dreaming of glory, wealth, and material possessions. We are expecting that what our society tells us is good for us, will make us happy and bring us joy. If that is the case, than why hasn’t a selfish, shallow, and rich person changed the course of history in the way Jesus has? Could it be that we are asleep to what the truth really is?
Advent is the time of preparing for Jesus’ arrival. I pray that we, myself included, not be asleep when He comes again.
