We wait with hope

Fractured.      Broken.  Unfair.      Painful.      Sad.  Depressed.      Isolated.      Lonely.  

The above are just some of the words that have been spoken to me in the last week by people I know and care about, people in my church community and folks not in that community but in my other communities.  People that are living life, figuring it out, embarking on the journey and have faced some things recently that are hard, painful, and don’t make a lot of sense.   Many times these dear people have no words to describe how they are feeling, no words to even come close to articulating where they find themselves emotionally and/or spiritually and if they do the words are fairly grim.  Now, to be clear I have also heard from dear people in my various communities who are feeling happy, joyous, hopeful, delivered, etc.  But for some reason I have been stuck in- and it seems there has been more of the hard words- hard realities.

Yet this is the season of hope.  The season of waiting expectantly for the coming of one that will bring peace, love, joy to reality.  This of course is the season of Advent as we wait for the light to come into the darkness.  But the darkness sometimes feels to dark someone told me as I was trying to point them to the light of Christ, the light of the promised one, the light of hope that we celebrate.  But the darkness shall not overcome the light…right?  Where, where is the light?  Where is the light in death of a baby who was carried to full term and seemingly healthy yet was born stillborn?  Where is the light in the sudden onset of a cancer that leaves on with six months to a year to live when he is only in his fifties?  Where is the light in the midst of a healthy (so they thought) recently retired person living out their dream in Northern Michigan who two weeks ago discovered a tumor behind his heart and now sits on the eve of Chemo and clings to the hope in modern medicine to give him more time?  Where is the light in the midst of a terrible economy as more and more people lose work, can’t feed themselves and just plain struggle?  Where is the light in the face of war, child abuse, hatred?  The list could go on right?  Where…where?

To be honest, and I have no reason not to be.  As a pastor who has the joy in often knowing more about people than the average person, and being allowed to carry the weight with others of what they carry- there are times it is overwhelming.  There are times that the darkness is so dark that it forces me to wonder – albeit not too long- why God?  How long God?  When God?  Come, lord Jesus.  But, in the midst of the brokenness comes hope, in the midst of the pain comes the acclamation from our God to the Prophet Isaiah, “Comfort, Comfort, my people…here I am, this is your God.”  Yes, in the midst of pain and sorrow and darkness the light does shine.  Where oh where is God?  God is here, now, right now, through the body of Christ, through the reality that pain is real but joy and light are Christ’s to bring.  Where?

Right here- in a community that gathers faithfully over prayer and sends cards and notes upon cards and notes to the gentlemen awaiting chemo.  Right here, in the family and friends that gather to support the mother and father and sister and brother who grieve the loss of the child that never too a breath in this world.  Right here, God is, in the promise of a child to pray for the one diagnosed with not much hope for life.  Right here, God is, in this season where many gather to do good things, to share their gifts, to give more than they have for the sake of others.  Right here, God is, in you, in me, now.

Come, this Advent season and wait with hope for Christ to come and wait expectantly to experience the joy of this season.  But don’t only wait…find ways to be Christ today- to be love today- to be the presence of Christ today.