Advent 2021, Week One

In my last post, I talked about resilience. Resilience is something that we all can foster in our lives. But how do we do this? Well, read on and see…

This Sunday, the season of Advent begins. All over the globe, Protestants, Catholics, and the Orthodox will celebrate Advent. “Advent is a season of the liturgical year… [that includes] the expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second coming” (Wikipedia, November 2021).  So during Advent, the first candle, the Candle of Hope will be lit to shine forth into a dark and hopeless world. Regrettably, many who light this candle do not have hope.

And yet, aren’t we ALL looking for hope? But then again, are we?  Generally, when we think of hope, we think of it as a positive sort of expectation that brings joy, confidence, satisfaction and security. But hope is not always positive. Hope can also be negative. What do I mean? Well, from the most ancient of texts, the Bible, the definition of the word hope, specifically from the New Testament, means expectation, anticipation, assumption (Thayer/Strong Concordance). Yet, to truly explore our own understanding of the word we must also analyse our world view. What is it that you expect? When you think about life or the future, do you anticipate good to happen or do you assume only evil or bad things will occur? Life, and endings for that matter, can either be happy and good or evil and scary.  Do you expect things that come your way to be happy or scary?

When I watch movies or read stories, I don’t like to watch or read things that have horrible and frightening endings. In fact, since breaking my leg this last Spring, I read thirty books, all with happy endings. Granted every book had characters that experienced horrific situations, but in the end, a happy ending. In reality this is not the case. Just watch or read the news. Every story has a terrible ending to something or someone. By the way, did you hear, there is now a new strain of COVID. To date, the Omicron strain is infiltrating every country and it is stronger, more transmissible, and deadlier than any other COVID variant, including the Delta variant. And according to scientists in Israel, our vaccines are basically very limited in protecting against this new virus! Hows that for a bad or evil ending…  

And yet, putting Omicron aside, if I analyse my current mode of thinking; I have to admit, I focus exclusively, on bad endings. And if I am honest, I do not believe there is such a thing as a happy ending in our world… my world… my world view. Yet by definition, hope or our expectations can either be negative or positive. So why is it that I choose to expect, assume, and anticipate that “the bad” will happen. It must be that my focus is selectively attuned to “the bad” not “the good”.  Good does happen but my problem is I fail to anticipate it. Consequently, when it comes I don’t see it.

So, if I am to change my outlook; my ethos, my perspective, my stinking thinking, I must stay focused on the good that has and will happen to me. To believe or expect that good will happen, I must remember all the good I have experienced through the merciful hand of God and focus on that. God has and continues to bless me. I am so forgetful! Are you? I think that is why in the Bible, the Old Testament specifically states that God told the Hebrews to remember all His blessings (Exodus 20,32). Moreover, God told the prophets over and over, to remind the people to remember all His mighty works (Deuteronomy 8,9,16,25,32; Joshua 1; 1 Samuel 15; Isaiah 43; Jeremiah 2, 14,31). If you think about it, God IS hope. He brings happy endings because He loves us and wants us to know Him. Messiah, Isa al Masih, came to earth not only to be our happy ending but also our hope. God died and was resurrected to show us the depth of His love and that He is our hope.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior”(John 3:16-17,GNB).

That said, do you set your sights on “the bad’?  You don’t have to. We can all believe, assume, and expect happy endings to happen and will happen for us because Christ, God in flesh, came to bring us hope.  

Perhaps this week, as you light the first candle of Advent, the candle of Hope, you will truly anticipate a happy ending.