Advent for Academics

On Tuesday, December 2, 2025, I had the privilege of sharing the devotional and opening prayer for our monthly all-faculty meeting at Lee University. After receiving several kind emails and having a few encouraging hallway conversations since then, I decided to post that devotional and prayer here as a blog. I read it directly during the meeting, which makes it easy to share below. I pray it’s a blessing to you today.

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Good afternoon, colleagues. Thank you, Dr. Eledge, for the invitation to share today’s devotional.

Though I was a 3rd generation Church of God PK, I’ll keep this short and to the point.

Now, though I have the privilege of coordinating our Music Business, Music Technology, and currently, our Music & Worship degree programs, don’t worry. I’m not going to give a devotional on the difference between mechanical royalties and performance royalties. I’m not going to talk about profit and loss financial statements, especially as it relates to the complexities of AI generated music. And I’m not diving into the history of commercial music—though if anyone wants to talk punk or disco music afterward, I’m available.

Instead, I’d like to spend a few minutes on something that unites all of us in this room—something far deeper than our academic specialties, church backgrounds, or our opinions on whether peppermint mochas or all things pumpkin spice should be available before Thanksgiving.

We have just entered into the season of Advent. Advent is a season of waiting—of longing—for the return of Christ. It invites us to sit in the tension between what is and what we know, and by faith, what will one day be. And I think that’s something all of us, across our varied disciplines, can connect with.

We are all familiar with waiting. Waiting for students to grasp a concept we’ve explained a gazillion times. Waiting for committees to meet (and then waiting for them to meet again). Waiting for those last few papers to finally be submitted. Waiting for the semester to end so we can breathe again.

But… Advent calls us to a different kind of waiting—an active, hopeful, purposeful waiting. Not passive resignation, but expectant trust that Christ will come again and set all things right, even make all things new. In our daily work—in classrooms, offices, studios, and rehearsal halls—we participate in that hope by shaping students who can think deeply, create beautifully, and love generously.

One of the great Advent hymns of the church captures this longing so well:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

“Rejoice” and “waiting” – they don’t usually go together. But in Advent, they do. Because our waiting is not empty—it is grounded in promise.

Scripture reminds us in Romans 8:25: “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” And patience, as we all know, is a spiritual virtue cultivated best by grading final papers.

So, my encouragement for us today—amid faculty meetings, final presentations, recitals, exams, and everything else this season brings—is to let Advent recalibrate our hearts. To allow the hope of Christ’s return to steady us, encourage us, and remind us why our work matters.

Allow me close with a prayer adapted from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. As we await the coming again of your Son, strengthen us in our callings, sustain us in our work, and fill us with hope that you are making all things new. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.