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Connections
December 1, 2002- First Sunday of Advent
"Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come... You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening or at midnight, or at cockcrow or in the morning."
Mark 13: 33-37
BLESSED DEADLINES
Loui Armstrong is supposed to have said, "Never mind creativity, man, just give me a deadline." As the great jazz musician understood, there are times when a deadline doesn't diminish inspiration: it is the inspiration.
Our lives are one dead line after another: the sales presentation , our tax returns, the Christmas shopping, the wedding preparations, the term paper, our child's costume for the school play. Some of us actually thrive under the pressure; a few of us are overwhelmed by the stress.
But any one who's worked with a deadline knows what a blessing a deadline can be. Curse it though you might, a deadline always blesses you. First of all, it gives you a a sense of urgency, even crisis, that moves the will.
Deadlines also compel us to seek help. Is there any camaraderie like that of partners laboring under the gun? Race me against a competitor and I'll run fast, but send me dashing to some goal with a gang of my friends and I'll run even faster.
A deadline forces choices, sparing us from our indecisiveness. Make a decision, choose a course of action. A deadline is the mother bird that teaches our fledgling desires to find their wings-- by knocking them out of the nest.
And that brings us to the fourth virtue of deadlines: their mercy. Deadlines save us not only from our procrastination but also from our perfectionism. Yes with more time we might have done better...and we might nor. No matter: The time came to do or die and we did and lived. [Adapted from "Deadlines" by Garret Keizer, The Christian Century, May 23-30, 2001.]
CONNECTION: The dawning of Advent confronts us with the ultimate deadline: our face-to-face encounter with God at the end of this life and the beginning of the next. The urgency of Advent compels us to realize and embrace the love and compassion, the forgiveness and healing given to and received from family and friends. The Advent deadline calls us to realize the urgency of now as the time to make our lives what we want them to be. Confronting us with the preciousness and fragileness of our lives, Advent forces us to make choices as to what values we believe are important enough to live for. Advent also assures us of the mercy of God who is with us regardless of the deadlines we miss, the challenges we fail, the opportunities we squander. ¦
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