It is almost December, and the Christmas season approaches. While some people celebrate birthdays only on a single day, the actual day of birth, others I know love to celebrate for the entire birth month. The word Advent means the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event. In various Church traditions, Advent is celebrated the four weeks before Christmas. Celebrating Advent turns a one day holiday into a month-long celebration. If you are someone who celebrates Advent, you will recognize HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE as the words associated with the advent wreath candles. 2020 has felt anything but peaceful, at times hopeless, and often appearing to lack joy or love. As we come to the end of 2020 and prepare for this Christmas Season, I invite you to join me in reflecting on the words used to celebrate advent, Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
Let’s start with HOPE, as the first candle in the advent wreath. To some, this candle is the reminder of the hope the Israelites had as they anticipated their coming Messiah(political and spiritual savior). Others may focus on the hope found in the birth of Jesus. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines hope as to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true. Also, to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment.
Reflecting on HOPE as it relates to the Christmas story, Mary came to mind. When the angel told Mary she would have a baby, she said to the angel, “Let it Be, I am the handmaid of the Lord.” She did not know all the details or how the story would unfold. She simply knew that this was her journey to travel. Her journey was far from an easy one; she almost lost her fiance; she gave birth in a barn and had to flee to a foreign land to protect her son. But Mary, I imagine, lived a life of active Hope, anticipation, and expectation that a more extraordinary story was unfolding. She was actively living out her part of the story. A story that gives us hope for tomorrow.
Imagine if, like Mary, we simply said YES when faced with the unexpected? Like Mary, we chose to hold onto the hope that our story was part of a much more incredible story unfolding. The Christmas Story reminds us that there is hope, there is hope even when things feel hopeless.
Hope is more than optimism; we can easily fake optimism. Hope is more than happiness; we can always pretend to be happy. Hope can be “false hope” or “blind hope,” merely hoping that things will go your way. But what if we considered hope as an active verb, not just a noun?
The best kind of hope
finds us actively engaged in living out today
the hope we have for a better tomorrow.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that our plans for tomorrow are never guaranteed. It can be easy to lose hope when it feels as if our ordinary everyday life keeps getting canceled. So how do we hold onto hope? Maybe a better question is, how do we live out active hope?
We should start by asking ourselves who or what is the foundation of our hope? Where do we find our hope? Then we ask ourselves, is our hope a noun or an active verb? Are we only waiting for good things to happen? Hoping good things happen? Or are we actively living in a way that moves us towards a better tomorrow?
Active Hope, a verb, lives fully engaged, defending the weak, feeding the hungry, weeping with those who are mourning. Active hope steps in when the world feels hopeless and shines a light in the darkness, leading the way.
As we light the first candle this Advent Season, the candle that represents Hope, let’s take a moment to reflect on Hope—remembering the HOPE found in the Christmas story and moving beyond the Christmas Story and into our own lives.
- What is the foundation of our Hope?
- Is our Hope a noun or an active verb?
- What does Hope look like when it’s fully engaged today, not just waiting for tomorrow?
Join me next week as we take a moment to reflect on PEACE, and if you aren’t already a subscriber, now’s a great time to sign up http://eepurl.com/g4KINP to get the latest post emailed directly to your inbox.
