Hope has been my constant companion for this past year. You might be familiar with the tradition of picking a word for the new year instead of making a New Year’s resolution. As I’ve started to do this in the past couple of years, the strangest thing is that it feels like the word chooses me most of the time, as if God is granting a benediction over my year. This year, without my actively choosing it, my word became hope. I was invited to speak about this at my church for the Christmas party and I laughed because it just fit, like everything God does when we keep our eyes open.
So, I’m writing about hope, our great hope in Jesus, and my goal is to illustrate why it is so important. It’s a fitting topic for this time of year because Christmas is when true hope entered our world, in the form of a baby. Jesus was the fulfillment of centuries of waiting by not just the Jewish people, but the whole world, for redemption and deliverance from darkness. We have a lot of traditions around Christmas that celebrate this. We sing songs, we light candles. We practice the season of Advent. Unsurprisingly, hope is the theme of the first week.
Advent looks forward to a coming. Most people use it to celebrate Jesus’ first coming long ago. In this season, we anticipate something. We’re waiting. The world waited a long time for Him, and He did come! He came bringing hope, and we recognize that at Christmastime. One of the reasons I think we celebrate the birth when we do is because it fits so well with the pattern of seasons. Typically, October-March is the darkest part of the year. At least, where I live. The dark is hard to get through, right? We all tend to feel it, like a burden weighing us down. We hate getting up when it’s dark. It feels like we have to go to bed when we get home. We have less energy for things. We need something in the middle of that six months to help us remember what light looks like. I think that’s why so many people put Christmas lights up, even if they don’t realize that’s the reason. In December, we can kneel at the manger and say, we’re half-way out of the dark.
However, the Jews may not have realized the baby’s birth was leading them out of the darkness, after the 400 years of silence from God they had endured. It’s no surprise that today, we need a powerful and hopeful reminder, since we’ve been waiting 2000 years for Him to come again. What He accomplished on the cross was powerful, was for all time, and is the instrument of deliverance for us, but we need to remember what He brought us the moment He was born, the hope that all will be made right.
I think we tend to have the idea that hope is flimsy, it’s a whimsical notion, something for dreamers and fools. If you try to grasp it in your hands, it will slip through your fingers. We use it a lot in poetry and symbolism and to describe wishful thinking. But real hope, the kind Jesus brought, is made of steel. It’s a formidable ally in our journey through the darkness. It’s no coincidence that in the book Pilgrim’s Progress1, Hopeful is the name of Christian’s companion on his journey to the Celestial City, joining him halfway through. Hopeful keeps Christian from giving up and committing suicide in the Doubting Castle, kept by Giant Despair. You see, hope isn’t something that flares up in the moment; hope is built on patience and endurance. It’s why we talk about it first during Advent, because hope is what sustains us when we wait. Hope is the foundation that peace, joy, and love grow from. The Bible tells us to hold unswervingly to the hope we have because we know God is faithful.
I am not pretending this is easy. There is much that would try to extinguish the light of hope in our lives. Does anyone else feel like the world we’re living in is practically designed to induce despair and that hope is very hard to come by? I know I’m not alone in that, but I still feel alone. One of the enemy’s greatest weapons against us is despair. If we give up, we’ve given in and we’re lost. We become isolated, and that starts to feel normal. Doubt gnaws at us, and we second-guess what we’re supposed to do and what is good or what is true. Clearly, the enemy is a fear-monger, and he wants us to be afraid. Afraid people don’t fight. Afraid people shrink down and do not let themselves be used for their God-given divine purpose. The enemy laughs when we are afraid and when we despair that anything will ever be made right again on this earth.
As Christians, we may have a flickering candle flame of hope that at least heaven will be better than this, but I guarantee you, if that’s your only hope, despair will blow it out. What we need is a wildfire of hope, right here and right now, spreading fiercely and proudly, devouring despair, and leaving growth and wholeness and opportunity in its wake. I read a phrase the other night: ‘fearless hope had been their guide.’2 My spirit soared when I read it. Do you know why? Because I realized that hope combats fear. Hope isn’t afraid. It’s what allows us to keep going even when we are bombarded on every side. Even when we are divided. Even when we are persecuted. Even when we are weary. Hope takes a stand and decrees that despair shall.not.win.
We know the reason why. It will not win because Jesus already did. He gave up more than we can possibly understand when He became one of us, but He did not give up hope when He came to earth, no, He embodied it. He faced fearful trials and torments, including everything each of us have faced, and more. Yet Jesus never lost faith, was always hopeful, and lived His life without fear. Please understand He still felt fear, but He did not allow it to take control. His hope was not found on this earth. His hope was found in His Father. And that’s what we must do. Fear is going to continue to make war upon us, but we don’t have to give in. We can look up and say, ‘Father, You saved me, now enable me to hear Your voice amidst every distraction and assault that is my daily experience on this war-torn earth. Let my ears be open, let my heart always admit Your presence.’
This leads me to something important. When you have hope, you can’t keep it hidden. You can’t keep it to yourself. Proclaim it openly. It might be easy to try to keep hope safe in the heart, an inward flame that keeps the inner self going. But the flame of hope needs oxygen, expelled from our lungs in victory, declaring to all who can hear that our hope is found in Christ alone. When we do that, I believe the flame grows stronger. Sharing is part of what keeps hope alive. Jesus did not come to save just you, but to save all those around you, using your help. We need boldness and courage to share in whatever way God has prepared us. Sharing is the model Jesus walked and one the disciples followed for the rest of their lives. It’s how the body of Christ was formed and how it grew. It’s one of the tools Jesus provided so we don’t feel isolated and afraid. So, please, do not attempt life on your own.
Those who know me will not be surprised at my referencing Lord of the Rings3 at any opportunity. When I think of hope, my thoughts always go to the scene in the Return of the King movie, which is very different from the books, by the way, but in this one instance, I think might be better. The scene is when Gandalf has Pippin light the beacons to ask Rohan for help against the soon coming war. The first beacon lights, breathless anticipation wonders if the chain will ignite, then the second flares, and on and on. The cinematography is phenomenal, the tiny flames lit by courageous men fulfilling their purpose, shining brightly amid the massive heights of snow-capped mountains, with a gorgeous score rousing every bit of emotion in my body to fever pitch. Go now and watch it. It’s one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen and it never gets old. And do you know what Gandalf says when the second beacon is lit? ‘Hope is kindled.’ 4
I want my flame of hope to be a beacon … His hope available to all. I want to fight against selfishness and timidity, against being afraid of what others might think. I want to think less of me and more of Jesus. It does not matter if other people approve of me. Only His opinion counts. With that, I cannot fail.
And yet, we are still waiting, right? All of us. Not just waiting for Jesus to come again, but for some individual desire or promise to come true. Waiting is hard. Waiting tempts us to give up, to run away, to give in to despair. Since we spend our whole lives waiting, we need something tangible to hold on to. We need some kind of direction through the mire of life. Hope is that direction. It is what we can grasp as tightly as we need.
Because Jesus is so kind and thoughtful, each year we are directly reminded to renew our hope in His promises and to let Him light a flame that He can keep burning the whole year through. We can’t do it, but He can. So, this Christmas, I want to ask that we think of hope, not as a candy-coated, easily broken promise just out of our reach, but as the powerful gift of Jesus. His birthday gift to the world. One that will never break, one that will endure, one that is solid and real and bright and easily shared. One that leads us out of the darkness and into His marvelous light. Do not choose despair. Let Fearless Hope be your guide.
1Pilgrim’s Progress. John Bunyan. 1678.
2The Golden Road. L.M. Montgomery. 1910. pg. 213.
3Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien. 1954.
4The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. DVD. Directed by Peter Jackson. 2003. New Line Cinema.
Scripture paraphrases found in the NIV and ESV.
J.A.Sellers and Peace Prayers 