Hope

Advent is the season of hope. We count down the weeks and the days until Christmas. We read scriptures that announce the arrival of the Messiah, the one who will be God Among Us. It’s all focused on how the ages have looked forward to – have hoped for – the coming of Christ, the Incarnation.

And what do we really have at all, if not hope?

Looking around, I can see all the human-ness of drudgery, expectations, duty, routine, weariness, brokenness, healing, triumph and persistence. We go through these things every day, and we keep coming back for more - even when it’s painful, when we are fairly sure we will be disappointed, again. There are times when we feel like giving up, when we just don’t want to try any more, but most people, most of the time, keep on going. And I blame that on hope.

Hope is what keeps us going when our marriage is failing, when ours kids are seriously ill or injured, when we’re fighting cancer or some other disease, when our aging parents rely on us for daily living, when we just can’t seem to work through and stay on top of our depression or anxiety, when we’re not sure how we will pay the rent or mortgage this month. God gave us hope so we can live. Without it, would life even be bearable?

For me, this ever-present hope is proof that God is alive in each of us. Some may attribute hope to our instinct for survival, or our desire to achieve, or our need to control outcomes, or some such other silliness. I’ll credit God for hope, and the Incarnation for sanctifying it. And when I see this hope in people, when I feel it in myself, I know I’m seeing God’s reflection.

Comments

[Mikala]

Great post!

[Steve]

Beautiful thought, Steve, and eloquently expressed. At the moment I'm reading the meditation book "Living Buddha, Living Christ," by Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese-monk-in-exile who was a friend of MLK's and Thomas Merton's). The chapter I just finished explores a similar theme--that is, how God's love is often best experienced through our heightened awareness of the best traits of those around us. God's love as it is reflected in others, in other words. Your meditation on hope and how hopefulness is a gift from God and a reflection of God's love drives Nhat Hahn's message home all the better. Thanks!

[Steve Bogner]

Mikala, Steve - You are very welcome. Thanks for visiting & commenting.

Steve, the current daily prayer podcast called 'pray as you go' (www.pray-as-you-go-.org) often reminds the listener to pay attention to those around you, to see God's presence in them.

[jim]

Thought I had commented here earlier, Steve. Another one of those "senior moments", I suppose. At any rate, I like your reflections on "hope". I think we, too often, are guilty of merely embracing the term and failing to find His fulness alive within us as the embodiment of what we claim to possess.....