Live Into Hope
- Valerie Young
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
I have LOTS of words to describe what the world is going through right now. The ones I can list here include grief, dystopia, mourning, disbelief, etc.
During the Advent season, a season of preparation for the arrival of Christ having come and coming again, the world continues to see grievous loss of human beings, culture, history and especially decency. When wars and senseless murders are happening in such rapid succession, how and where can we find hope?
This isn’t about sides. This is about life. Whether the murder of Charlie Kirk, Rob Reiner, the innocent 15 in Sydney, Australia, Venezuelan fishermen, or the students on yet another campus, these are human lives. This is the season for hope, peace, joy, and love, a time of prayer and anticipation. I just can’t help thinking that Christ can’t come again soon enough.
There’s a reason why we light (and re-light) the candle of Hope every week during this season. Hope is the basis of all that follows. Hope is the basis of all that is so, we must light it before we can light the others. Christ is our hope; Christ is our basis. We don’t wait passively. True hope is something that we actively demonstrate. We stand for and with the people of our communities, nation, and the world for what we know (a certain hope) Christ will one day bring about. Peace.
LIVE INTO HOPE
Live into hope of captives freed, of sight regained, the end of greed. The oppressed shall be the first to see the year of God’s own jubilee!
Live into hope! The blind shall see with insight and with clarity, removing shades of pride and fear, a vision of our God brought near.
Live into hope of liberty, the right to speak, the right to be, the right to have one’s daily bread, to hear God’s word and thus be fed.
Live into hope of captives freed from chains of fear or want or greed. God now proclaims our full release to faith and hope and joy and peace.
TEXT: Jane Parker Huber, 1976
Text © 1980 Jane Parker Huber (admin. Westminster John Knox Press)
I pray for you a meaningful and peace-full Advent. May the light of Christ hold you in hope, now and forever more.
Valerie