For in you, O י ה ו ה, have I fixed my hope;
you will answer me, O Lord my God.
Psalm 38:15

Everything around me seems half done. I’m halfway through a stack of bills, the tree is halfway up, and at least half of the house is in disarray. Many projects started—when will I be able to complete them?

I am not someone who enjoys living in the messiness of the middle. I don’t mind getting into a mess at all. I am perfectly happy deconstructing something in order to rebuild it, getting completely covered with paint or flour or dirt in order to create, burying my work space with multiple books and papers in order to research a project. Yet at the end of the day, I want to complete the work and leave the area tidy. Lingering in the unfinished space is difficult.

Yet Advent calls us to do just this, linger in preparation. There is messiness on the way to the manger, and completion only comes in God’s time. My only recourse is to seek out the holy in the messiness of the middle and fix my hope on God.