I took the day off yesterday because I was sick. And I mean sick, sick. Fever, chills, hot flashes. In my own little fuzzy world a solid amount of the time. While I am no stranger to sickness these days, having a five-year-old daughter who truly has the time of her life in Kindergarten among her many friends who are all seemingly perpetually with some stage of the sniffles, this sickness hit harder than anything has in years. Thankfully, though my nose is still plugged, I woke up this morning clear-headed enough to write, something I can do from the couch at home while my also recovering daughter snuggles up to me and watches The Tigger Movie for what feels like the millionth time.

I don’t like getting this sick. Big shocker there. I rarely stay sick for all that long, even. If I am feeling this much better today, I suspect in the next day or two I will be good to go (likely wearing a mask of course). But I find even though I never stay sick all that long, any amount of time I am truly knocked on my back hits me hard. I am someone who likes to have a million things on the go. I am someone who likes seeing the ways in which the world around me can be made better and then working toward that end. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I find myself a pastor in the first place. Perhaps that is why I find myself involved in MacGregor in the ways that I am. Perhaps that is why I find myself involved in our conference’s General Board. So when I find myself sick to the point where I can do nothing, even if it is just for a day, it hits hard because there are many things that I could be doing but I am physically unable to.

Last Sunday we found ourselves entering the season of Advent. While for many of us this season is little else than opening the numbered doors on our chocolate calendars, in church terms, Advent is about something very particular. It is the time when we are to stop and take stock. Take stock of all that God has done that led us to the first Christmas all those years ago. Take stock of all that God continues to do building his kingdom through his church, and preparing the world for when He will come again. Advent is about stopping, and preparing ourselves both for when the Lord came as a baby, as well as when he will one day return in all glory to heal this world fully.

While I can’t say that the ideal way to do these twin tasks of Advent is to get sick to the point that you have no choice but to for at least a day stop everything, I will say that there is something poetic in this being the reason to adhere to the season. To stop everything when you are sick is not done with no purpose. It is your body’s way of refocusing its resources. Your body forces you to stop because that is how you heal from whatever pathogen or injury that inflicts you.

When we think of the season of Advent, there is something fitting in this way of understanding it as well. We stop not just to do nothing, but so we can focus on the coming cure.