First week of Advent

“Where hope would otherwise become hopelessness, it becomes faith.” 

~Robert Brault ~

  


This Sunday will mark the first week of Advent.  This season of waiting, of preparing, are upon us.  And oh how badly I need it this year!  It has been a busy and stressful fall, one that wasn't lacking on its share of heart-ache and worries.  And this past week has been the same, only in a rapidly concentrated version.  And I wish I could say the coming weeks look a whole lot better, but I fear there will be continued stress and struggles as the Holidays approach.  So less-so than the preparing of home and gifts and cards and cookies I have on my to-do list, is the preparing of my heart to handle life well.  There have been plenty of days lately that my mind, body and my heart have wanted to give up, to give up on holding on to hope.  

And it is in those days that I am reminded that though we Christians are called to be a hope-filled people, we are also called to something even stronger than hope...faith. 

This Sunday's first reading is from the Book of Jeremiah.  This book is striking to me at this challenging time in my life. The Book of Jeremiah speaks of a people, Israel, who had a long string of difficult situations - a series of bad kings and rulers, violent armies and deaths, doubts and false idols, slavery, destruction of their Temple, and deportation from their home.  They were forced away from all their security, comfort, and even from their feeling that GOD was with them.  Jeremiah himself, a prophet of unfailing hope, died in exile, having been dragged from his home and that which he had loved and proclaimed for so long.  It is not an all together happy book! Yet it is a hopeful one. 

GOD called Jeremiah to be a prophet of hope.  GOD continued to speak through Jeremiah in word and writing to let His people know that there is hope.  In fact, scholars have referred to certain chapters as the "Book of Consolation" because of all the promises of restoration and assurance that Israel's exile will not be without end.  In essence, the Book of Jeremiah tells us, "though things really suck now, though it may even get worse before it gets better, though you may not feel it now, I am still GOD and am still with you and will still keep my promise for better days...just wait."  How much, and how often, I need to hear that!  

Jeremiah not only had hope in those better days, he had faith in them.  

This is my goal this Advent - to remember that when I simply don't feel I have any hope left to hold onto, I can still turn to my faith.  I can be mad at GOD ; I can yell; I can try to make deals: I can blame; I can do all those things and more.  But as long as I am still turning to GOD , even in my anger and hopelessness, then I still have faith.  (I believe it was my mother who once said, "Why would I have been yelling at someone if I didn't believe they were there to hear me?")  Yes, I have faith in a GOD who has promised me great things, even if I can't see or feel them now.  I am holding tightly to that faith!  For as long as I have that faith, I know better days will come...I'll just wait.  

“The days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah.
In those days, in that time,
I will raise up for David a just shoot;
he shall do what is right and just in the land.
In those days Judah shall be safe
and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;
this is what they shall call her:
"The Lord our justice."

  

A blessed first week of Advent to all!