Hope in a Season of Hopelessness
Friends, do you have a heavy heart this season? A season of feeling extra stress and tension in the air? The year is coming to an end soon, and boy has it been a tough one. This year many of you have lost loved ones, been isolated and lonely, felt yourself digging deeper into depression. Many of you have felt a sense of tension between family members and friends. Others have felt stagnant in the sense of hate and inequality directed towards them. If nothing else, we have all felt a sense of hopelessness with each and every month of the ongoing pandemic.
I am here to reassure you of hope in this season of hopelessness! I am here to tell you the good news, whether you know it and need a reminder like I myself need at times, or if you have never even heard of the good news of hope!
Broken people
If we can dig deep and search our own souls for a moment, we would recognize the darkness within ourselves. Even with the good we are capable of doing at times, or with all the love we are willing to share with others, we are broken. There is absolutely nothing we can do about that. As good as we can try to be, we all have parts of us that are ugly.
The ugliness within us comes with being a human. Our human nature is to be selfish and worry about our own needs before others. We don’t tend the hunger of the homeless until we have indulged with all we need and more. We don’t take a moment to give others rest until we have had enough rest ourselves.
When someone hurts us either physically or emotionally, we automatically want to see them hurt just as much, if not more than we were hurt. Revenge is sweet, right? Giving others grace doesn’t flow naturally through our hearts unless we choose to redirect our soul.
Advent
Maybe you have heard the term advent before and don’t fully understand what it means, or maybe you haven’t even heard it at all. To phrase it simply, advent is the excitement leading up to Christmas. It is the hope we know that is coming with the birth of Christ.
Now if you don’t have a relationship with Christ, his birth may not seem that exciting. Christmas for you could just be an exciting time of the year to be with family or being generous with others. Maybe it’s those special meals and conversations we have around the table with all of our loved ones. Christmas can seem magical driving around the city looking at all of the lights everywhere.
The birth of Christ is something we all should be excited for though!
Shalom
The birth of Christ brought us shalom (peace) to our past and to our present. With his birth, we have hope that even when we do or think or say some of the most horrendous things, we are still forgiven.
You are loved by God. Let me say that again. YOU are loved by God.
Though we are selfish at times, careless with our words, or have hearts that are hardened towards others, we are still loved. When we have a difficult time forgiving others, God still forgives us. Jesus’ birth brought us that!
While it is hard to comprehend a perfect love, because we ourselves do not have the capability to show perfect love, we are sill given that love. That is special! That is the HOPE of Christ!
May you go in peace
If you have never had a relationship with Jesus, but feel like that is something you are ready for, I pray you have the courage to jump in without fear. I pray you can jump in with shalom this Christmas season knowing you are loved with a perfect kind of love!
Are you ready to cling to the hope of Christ in this season of hopelessness?
“May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” -Numbers 6: 24-26
