Advent—Hope—Day 7

I hope Bama wins the SEC championship.

Nah, at this point, I just hope they can lose with grace and speak kindly in the post-game press conference. My mother says the toybowl teams have looked better than the Tide today.

I also hope that I play a great game of Dirty Santa at the family Christmas get-together tomorrow and won’t get stuck with the token bobblehead doll or a re-gifted Moonlight Path candle from 2002.

I hope my lips don’t feel like hamburger meat after attempting to play my trumpet next week in the alumni band Christmas spectacular. Give me that 3rd part on Sleigh Ride and on everything else too.

I hope I can make it through the end of the year and evade the brutal norovirus that is “running” through the community, literally. If it tags you, it’ll run out of you one way or the other, or maybe both.

I hope the sore spots on my dog’s back heal up and she doesn’t have to wear the cone of shame. She says she hopes the same thing, and she also says she hopes I eat poop and run rabbits, especially when the word “bath” is mentioned or when I’m holding her spray, ointments, and medicine.

I hope I can sleep well at night and not be hot, have weird dreams, or lie there with my brain trying to figure out what Christmas presents are left to buy. I hope FedEx delivers my packages to the correct porch. 

I hope it warms up some, as in right after the New Year. I’d be more than happy to drink my last mug of hot chocolate on New Year’s Eve, have my dose of turnip greens and black-eyed peas on January 1st, and then put away the sweaters. Let it be sunny and 75. 

Except I know better. I know January feels like the longest month of the year, that bare and lonely stretch between the holiday festivities and the budding of spring’s new life.

I also know that to be a Bama fan, or any fan, is to live within the realm of winning and losing. Sports means competition, and competition means someone will win and someone will lose. Same with Dirty Santa, so if I get that bobblehead doll or vintage candle, I’ll treasure it (and stick it under the tree next year).

I’ll play the music in the band concert with old friends and relive my musical glory days, despite what my lips will feel like afterwards. That’s why they make Carmex.

And if I’m visited by a virus, well, that’s another risk we take living on good old Planet Earth. My dog would say the same thing. At least we can curl up together in our misery and be a comfort to each other.

For I know that even during the nights when I don’t sleep well, I’ve made it through every day and every night that’s come before, and I’m going to make it through this one too. Every day that comes along is another chance to keep on hoping for all the things to happen that make life more interesting.

Will they happen? Maybe, and maybe not. 

But one thing that’s no gamble: life is hard, and if you’re going to play the game, you better be ready to deal with those times when your soul feels like hamburger meat. 

What do you do when you have no hope? Your troubles pile up, the crises loom large. It’s far worse than Bama losing a championship game or you suffering through the effects of a stomach bug.

Keep your head up? Keep a positive attitude? Easier said than done, folks. The self-help manuals have their place, but when you’re dealing with the fallout of a life-changing diagnosis, the grief of a loved one’s death, the emotional toll of abuse, or any other number of situations of deep suffering, some of those self-help manuals would do more good in the garbage can.

This life isn’t sunny and 75; it’s more like a cold-to-the-bone rain at 33 degrees—right on the edge of the snow and the magic, but you could just as easily end up with an ice storm as a winter wonderland.

In this uncertain life, where we never know what a day will bring, is there such a thing as a certain hope?

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”

I Peter 1:3-6 NIV

Suffering is only for a little while in the grand scheme of things, and when you have the living hope that comes from faith in Jesus, you don’t fight alone. 

I hope more people will realize that. I hope they will read their Bibles. I hope they will pray. I hope they will group up with others who are doing the same thing. 

I hope they will tell others, after knowing the Truth for themselves, that it’s real. All of it.

That’s something worth hoping for.

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Reflection and Prayer: We don’t usually consider suffering a gift, but think of times that have tested you. What did you learn? How did God help you? How can you give hope to others who are experiencing trials? Thank God for the ultimate hope found in Jesus. Ask Him to comfort those who are suffering through trials and to show you how you can help someone who is struggling.