ADVENT ADVENTURE

My Dictionary of Word Origins tells me that advent and adventure come from the same root word in Latin – advenire: to arrive. Adventure originally meant "what comes or happens by chance; luck." By the fourteenth century it took a pessimistic downturn in meaning to "hazardous undertaking."

Sort of gives one pause when contemplating the coming, the arrival of the Advent Season, does it not?  Jesus's arrival, Jesus's coming, which we celebrate on Christmas, certainly did not happen by chance. But it certainly was an adventure, even a hazardous undertaking for him in the end.

When we arrive anywhere, no matter how planned-out our arrival was, no matter how much preparation went into what was to happen upon our arrival, arrivals tend to be adventures. They may not always be hazardous undertakings, but they almost always include much of what comes or happens by chance. A late plane, a flat tire, delayed mail, whatever, can make even the most risk-free occasion hazardous to one's health.

One wonders, then, if the celebration of the Advent Season should be an adventure, a time when we let what happens happen, when we let luck be the lady that guides what we do during this season. Or one wonders if the time becomes simply a hazardous undertaking, a risk-filled time in our lives. One wonders if, in the end, one has a choice as to how the keeping of Advent turns out. And if one does have a choice, which will it be: Advent as come-what-may or Advent as a deliberate undertaking that may be hazardous?

If I have that choice, I think I'll opt for the latter. I'm a very organized person anyway, so perhaps it would be my nature to deliberately choose the dangerous rather than risk whatever might happen. But I am also a person who has this large yellow streak running all the way down my back. Risk is not a large word in my vocabulary.

But I believe that Advent calls us to risk the hazardous rather than let what-will-be be. Advent calls us not to take a chance on Jesus but to risk our lives on following Him. And that can be hazardous to our health as many of the early martyrs discovered, as we have all discovered when we have deliberately given of ourselves to others in love.

Advent calls us to take the time, make the time, to look deeply into what our faith and our life of faith is all about. It asks us to be deliberate about how we use this time and deliberate on how we live out our faith. Jesus became one of us only when the time was right, and not one minute sooner. And everything he did during his life was very deliberate, always after much thought and prayer. The end result was hazardous to his health; but he knew what he was doing.

The same is asked of us during this time of the year. The only way we can know what we are doing as we live out our life of faith is to take the time to reflect on why we are doing what we are doing. It is a risky business, this deliberately following Jesus. We need time to think about that truth. Advent is that time. We need to use it wisely.