Advent Daily: Standing Still in Hope, Peace, Joy and Love

Clinging to Hope

Each of us has experienced times when the storms of life seem to scatter wreckage all around us. It’s as if you feel torrents of despair raining down. Crashing waves beat against you as you struggle to keep your head above water, at times feeling as if your soul gasps for breath. Floods and tides rise leaving you hoping against hope, clinging to hope, even though you feel it slipping through your hands.

As I sit this evening in Advent with the candle of hope, my heart and prayers turn toward several of those around me who in this moment are clinging to hope. The one who waits for results of a scan and bloodwork after chemo and radiation, desiring only to hear the word remission. The one sitting at bedside, wanting desperately to embrace future days with a loved one, yet grasps at the hours left, and struggles to find the strength to say goodbye for now. The mother who daily struggles to meet basic needs for those she loves, wishing somehow there will be a little left for providing small joys to be found under a tree. The one who struggles with loneliness upon relationship’s end after a bitter battle. The one wishing and searching for employment as bills and needs begin to pile, feeling overwhelmed, and beginning to see relationships strained as waves of anxiety and worry begin to drown. Those overwhelmed by narratives, negativity, division, and fear that daily bombard in the media.

This life is lived in the midst of difficulty, demands, setbacks and tragedies, pain, and detours. As I focus on hope’s flame, I see an anchor that when clung to provides endurance, strength, assurance, and even joy. It is the hope that is found through the babe we celebrate this season, the hope we cling to that is anchored in the cross and an empty grave, the hope we confidently possess, looking forward to eternity. The hope we find in the Word has power. In the New Testament Greek, the word hope is derived from elpis, from the primary elpo, which is rooted differently from today’s common meaning of desiring, wishing, wanting, longing, or an optimistic yearning. The Bible’s hope is a trust, a confidence, an expectation of what is sure or certain. This is hope worthy of “clinging to hope.” It is not a feeling but rather a knowing. Hope is knowing God is faithful, knowing God is love, knowing God cares for you, knowing through the gift of a babe and the sacrifice on the cross, you have life everlasting, knowing that you can be joyful in hope as you are patient in affliction, and knowing that He is always present even in the darkest of storms.

It is my prayer that you cling to this hope. May hope light the darkness. May hope allow you to endure. May hope be a knowing for you, providing an anchor and a confident anticipation of hope everlasting.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)

God is love. (1 John 4:8b)

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son; and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:3–6)

I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20b)

Glimmer of Hope

This week in Advent a single candle is lit. As it is lit, I ponder the flame. I observe how a spark becomes a glimmer that begins to burn brighter and provides light. Over the last couple of days, I’ve noted the theme of this process occurring in different ways.

- I rise in the morning to a darkened day. Looking out of the room’s window to the east, there is a small bit of light breaking over the hills, sparking into a glimmer that bursts into light of day.

- I am driving home after work. Skies are darkened by clouds as the rain falls. I note that a few trees in front of me are beginning to brighten as a ray of sunlight begins to glimmer, then shine, and suddenly a rainbow illuminates the dark sky above them.

- As evening fades, the sun sinks over the coastal range, and day ends. Above, slowly a glimmer appears in night sky. Jupiter begins to shine brightly, and then the darkness begins to reveal many sparkles, and the heavens light up.

Through these observations, my spirit has been a witness to an assuring fact. The small glimmer of hope that holds promise always becomes light, promise fulfilled. Always…