No, You Just Don't Have Hope

Time has flown by as the Christmas season is upon us again.

Next weekend marks the start of another Advent season. The moments of celebration that come after Jesus' Resurrection are coming to a close.

With Ordinary Time ending, we continue our journey to where it all started: the world's first encounter with Christ as the baby in the manger.

And, as we do, we must remember to find hope.

With two wars, the lingering effects of a pandemic, threats of more war always on the horizon, rising costs associated with living, and real or perceived divisions in society, it is easy to despair in what seems around us.

Yet, life is more than what it seems to be.

For many, the birth of Christ was far from what it seemed to be. It was in a small town, in a stable, amongst the animals. Even when being placed in a feeding trough, there was still hope in this birth.

So as we approach Advent, remember to find hope: far too often we think hope is something we just have.

We attempt to have an opinion on events removed from our daily lives.

We are everywhere but where we actually are.

We build our reality on a perception. We toss aside any possibility of finding hope as we lust after the newest inciteful, mostly skewed, headline, reel, TikTok, or sound bite. We search and search because we are led to believe we must have something to say on events far removed from our actual existence. Everything that happens, despite our distance and unfamiliarity with the given context, becomes part of our world.

But much like Christ's birth, the world is not what it seems.

What is the world if not who we see each day, who we talk to, we laugh and smile with, and make memories with. Despite the prevailing rhetoric, we all have encounters that can provide hope.

We just have to look for it.

This is not to say the events of the world are not very real, concerning, and happening at each moment.

Instead, as these moments happen, we must find rest, find peace, and find hope where we are in order to persist in the world we, ultimately, do exist.

As we head toward Advent, and the eventual birth of Jesus Christ, the Hope of the world, look for Hope: look for Christ in the moments surrounding you.

Find Hope in the people you see, the sounds you hear, and the encounters you remember at the end of the day.

Find Hope in that song you keep singing, in the joke you want to tell everyone.

Find hope in your fond memories and those you continue to make.

Find Hope: Find Christ.

Like the shepherds and magi who came to find Christ, hope is something to seek out: seek hope, seek Christ.

Jesus Christ was born to bring hope into the world, so, lucky for us, we just need to look around to find it.

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To celebrate the start of Advent this weekend, I launched an Instagram challenge to try to guess a song on my playlist.

It's now 12:00 pm, on December 1st, 2023.

Did you guess correctly?

Apple Music

Spotify