HOPE - the bad news and the good news!

Hope is about being able to wait.  Something most of us shun and would never invite.

And yet — Advent is all about waiting.  That’s what it is designed for!

A season of waiting for God’s arrival and what He has promised.

Right now, it feels as if there a hundred-thousand things we are waiting for!

We are waiting for the brightness of Truth to be revealed.

We look to the heavens for a lightening bolt from God to shatter through the darkness and illuminate all that is hiding in the shadows.

We are waiting for clarity to cut through the thick, suffocating clouds of confusion that the enemy has long been crafting to lull so many into apathy, slumber, and deception.  We know this is not how the Father wants The Church to live.  He sent His Son to BE Light to us, so we may walk lucidly on clear paths - right through the moonless, midnight hours.

We are waiting for God’s power to fall on our staggering nation and to steady our legs, our arms, and our hearts.  So many of us have positioned ourselves on the wall and are fighting , but are battle-weary and in need of supernatural strength.  Lift up our arms Oh Mighty One!

We are waiting for that “one thing”.  That one promise He whispered to our hearts that we still have not seen.  We hold onto it, but only by faith.  We privately hope that it really was God Whose voice we heard, and not just our own.  We want to believe it was Him.  But hope deferred makes the heart sick, (weary), and maybe this advent season our souls are worn a bit thin.  

We are waiting for the freedom that we’ve been promised.  We’ve tried all the things, said all the prayers, lamented all the failures, and pulled against the chains until callouses have formed.  We hope against all the evidence that says we are still bound, that THIS Christmas we may finally be busted loose from captivity! 

My friends, I have some news that may seem like bad news, but oh boy… I have some news that actually is GOOD news!!  

Waiting is truly what advent is about.  

It is a season where we individually and corporately as the Church, must abide in the waiting.  We choose, (if we will engage in the purpose of Advent), to just sit in that awful, painful, ache of waiting for what we do not yet see.  This may feel like “bad news” if we only consider it at face value and from an earth-bound perspective. But in the higher, more true realm, this IS our GOOD NEWS! 

We wait with our minds aware of what we lack, our hearts fastened to what we hope for, and our spirits lifting on the the prayers of faith we offer in the waiting.  

Waiting is abiding.

Waiting is aching.

Waiting is watching.

Waiting is believing.

Waiting is hoping.

Waiting is expecting.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting — that is, of hopefully doing without — will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.  For the greatest, most profound, tenderest things in the world, we must wait.”

(From his letter to fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer, written from prison, December 13, 1943)

Advent and the waiting is actually the place where only after we feel the ache, 

will we experience the joy!

So there you have it!  The “bad news” is that our hearts must feel the heavy ache of what we are still waiting and hoping for.  BUT the GOOD NEWS is that in this ache we are preparing room for the fulfillment of His Hope, His very arrival! 

After we have waited, when He comes, we realize that HE is what we truly ache for!

HE is the answer to every thing we are waiting for!

Oh Father! You have promised me things that I still am waiting for.  I read Your word and I see that You have plans for my life, my family, my community, my nation, and this world, and many I am still waiting for.  

Help me choose to abide in the ache of those things which have not yet manifested.

Help me to stay here in the throbbing and yet, still hope!

Hope is an anchor so I fasten myself securely to You, my true anchor of Hope

and I will wait, and watch and believe.

I will not run away from the blessedness of waiting, but I will embrace it as the path that leads to the Door of Hope - The One I wait for, the baby born to be 

Light, Freedom, and Hope - THE blessing of fulfillment!

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

on them has light shone.

You have multiplied the nation;

you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

as with joy at the harvest,

as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden,

and the staff for his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

and every garment rolled in blood

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:2-7 (ESV)