It is finals week at Seattle Pacific University, and for two hours this morning I watched as 60-plus students scribbled furiously in their blue books. The looks on their faces reflected intense concentration, mixed at times with hints of desperation. But as each student concluded his or her exam, expressions turned toward a blend of relief and exhaustion — and even a little satisfaction. Well,  unless another exam awaited.

In no small way, the students have lived this quarter (and every other quarter) in anticipation of these three days. That anticipation is far below the surface during the care-free early weeks of school, but it builds as concepts, questions, papers and projects pile atop one another. By the time finals arrive, anticipation often turns into a mix of anxiety and stress, with more than a few students saying to themselves: “I’m not sure how I am going to get through this, but somehow I will.”

So here we are, at the beginning of Advent, a different season of anticipation, a time of “expectant waiting” as we look toward our celebration of Jesus’ birth. But if I am honest with myself, all too often that sense expectant waiting is overwhelmed by a frantic scramble to take care of all the “things” that one must do pull off a “successful” Christmas. You know the routine: shopping, cleaning, decorating, entertaining — etc., etc., etc.

And at some point over the next three weeks I am all too likely to feel just like my students: “I’m not sure how I am going to get through this, but somehow I will.” With that, I will have managed to turn a time of joy into a test — except that it is self-imposed. I can’t even blame a professor.

So, my prayer for the next three weeks is that God would help me let go of all the “things” of Christmas and instead help me to wait with great expectation, to anticipate with joy the day upon which Jesus entered the world and filled our hearts with redemption and hope — anticipating anew the day in which we see Christ once more.