First Sunday of Advent
From Wilshire Advent Devotions 2015
Hope is a precarious proposition. The moment we place our hope in something or someone, we set ourselves up for disappointment. That is partly because of our mistaken understanding of the word. We throw “hope” around like a blessing or a prayer – “Hope it goes well” or “Hope you have a great time” or “Hope you find what you’re looking for” – but the word is really about “maybe” and “possibly” and “there’s a chance” if everything goes right.
We adorn “hope” with an expectation of success and even wonderful, spectacular results, when hope actually straddles the fence between pessimism and optimism. Hope floats in the middle of a glass that is half full and half empty.
Not only do we misuse the word and sentiment of hope, but in practical application we misplace our hope. There have been days when I hoped fervently for healing but the damage could not be repaired, the cure could not be found. Or times when I put my best foot forward and gave my best effort but someone else got the job. And many times I’ve worked so hard and put everything I can into a project, only to see it flounder and fail. I was hoping for better and got the worst possible results. In fact, that has prompted a well-worn philosophy for many of us: Hope for the best but expect the worst.
Doctors, bosses, teachers, friends and relations – we put our hope in what they can do for us but they can only do so much. They can’t guarantee survival, happiness, wealth or success. Just like us they are flesh and blood, fallible and frail, and yet we put our hope in them.
But there is one who transcends our expectations and transforms our failures, one we can place our hope in without reservation and know that wrong will be made right, dread will be turned to relief, sorrow will become joy and chaos will give way to peace. It won’t be in the way we expect or understand or even experience today, but in a way that will make perfect sense over time because it will be in God’s perfect time.
That is the hope of Advent and the reason for rejoicing in this season. The one who can make it all make sense came among us and is with us always. The glass is no longer half full of a hope that can’t be trusted; it is overflowing with a hope that is eternal.