‘I have no thought of time,

for who knows where the time goes?

..I have no fear of time,

for who knows where the time goes?’

From ‘Who knows where the time goes? From the 1969 album ’Unhalfbricking’ by Fairport Convention 

This Season of Advent is intended to be a time to prepare. Of course, there are all the preparations that most people are undertaking over these weeks; preparations for presents and parties and dinners and get-togethers and cards and so on. 

But the intention of this Advent time is that we who look forward to the celebration of our Lord’s birth (and, indeed, to his coming again) prepare ourselves in spirit. While in more recent times, the emphasis of this season has shifted towards ‘hope’ (and I am pleased it has) the danger is that the other aspects of Advent get lost; prayer, fasting, self-examination etc. 

In past years in my blog posts, I have made much of the importance of this time of spiritual discipline, reflection and prayer for me. 

Except…

…it is far from easy!

‘Great is the darkness that covers the earth…’ but it is not easy to spend time reflecting on this in anticipation of the coming of the light, when already the Christmas lights have been twinkling for weeks.

It is not easy to consider any type of ‘fasting’ when parties and dinners begin so early.

It is not easy to enter into the pain, tension, and struggle of affirming God’s promises while these remain not yet finally or fully fulfilled, and join in the deep longing for the coming of God’s Kingdom, when we are already singing Christmas Carols.

It is not easy to spend time in prayer and self-examination when the many other preparations squeeze that time, and everything seems to get ever more hurried the nearer we get to Christmas. 

Ah time… there it is. We seem to have no time. Where does it go? Why does it seem to run away from us?

I was reflecting on some of this the other day in my prayers, or perhaps ‘despairing’ would be a better description! But the note I made in my journal ended on a more positive note… that it is worth maintaining the struggle to find the time.

For, of course, there is just as much time in each day and week of Advent as there is at any other time of the year. It is a question of how we use it, what we prioritise, and on what we focus.

And that whole theme of time is, in itself, a good thing on which to reflect in this Advent Season.