On Advent and Hope

Here’s perhaps a little-known fact: I love Black Friday.  Yes, that’s right.  I always go shopping on Black Friday.  I get up early and hit the stores and hunt for the bargains.  I love the hustle and bustle of the crowds.  I love the Christmas decorations.  I love the door-buster offers and the “only available 5am-10am” giveaways that generally run out before I get there. I even continued the Black Friday tradition in India where Thanksgiving and Black Friday don’t exist.  I would be the first one in the stores when they opened at their normal times and the stores would be completely empty.  There would be no sales.  But still the thrill was there.

 

This year, though, my perspective has changed.  To be completely transparent, I always felt more than a little twinge of guilt and shame because of my love for Black Friday.  This year that guilt and shame has turned into conviction.  More than ever before, I have been struck by the blatant consumerism that is our country and our world during the holiday season.  The sales! The products on offer! The TVs, vacuums, toys, and Instant Pots all available at amazing prices! If you don’t have one you should buy one (or more!) now!  You don’t even have to go to the stores because all the sales are available online now, as well as in person and will be delivered to your doorstep.  If you miss Black Friday, don’t worry because Cyber Monday is coming!  And certainly December will be filled with more opportunities for all of us to spend money we don’t have and find gifts for everyone on our list.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong… I love shopping, I love gift giving, I love receiving gifts!  But, as a staunch participant in Black Friday in years past, this year it was so clear to me how tragic it is that we as a culture get into a buying frenzy the day immediately following a day of national thankfulness.  And perhaps this year the gift buying signals something a little deeper.  Perhaps it signals a cry for help.  A cry for normalcy.  We as a nation are hurting and had hoped that COVID would be gone by now, that we’d have political peace, and that social media would once again be a place we could go to see pictures of cute children and photos of delicious food.

 

I’d like to suggest that perhaps what’s going on in our hearts this year is actually more than just a cry for normalcy.  It’s a cry for hope.  We need hope that tomorrow is going to be OK.  We need hope that COVID won’t last forever.  We need hope that our nation will someday NOT be divided.  We need hope that one day people will act with civility toward one another and that all the arguments will end.  We need hope that there will be peace and understanding.

 

But right now, we don’t have hope that any of that will happen.

 

Maybe it’s because we’re putting our hope in the wrong things.  We are putting our hope in the systems of the world.  We are putting our hope in one another.  We are putting our hope in financial security, emotional stability, physical health, and an overall sense of personal strength in times of trouble.

 

Unfortunately, when we put our hope in those things, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment because there can be no eternal hope in earthly things. 

 

Today begins the season of Advent.  And the first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Hope.  It is a day when we can commit ourselves anew to placing our hope in the only thing that will last forever and that will never disappoint: Jesus.

 

Pope Francis tweeted this morning on the topic of Hope at Advent: “Advent is a continuous call to hope: it reminds us that God is present in history to lead it to its ultimate goal and to its fullness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.” – tweet by Pope Francis

 

How amazing is it that God is present with us to give us hope even in the midst of circumstances that leave us broken and confused? His love for us is the ultimate bringer of hope for all parts of our own lives, but also for all parts of our society and all parts of our world.  We may see the most unbelievable trouble, but God’s hope transcends that trouble and brings to us a way through and a way out.  We can have confidence in the glimmer of His hope even when we can’t see any way that the future will be bright.  That’s the great mystery of God: His ways are not our ways.  Even if we don’t understand what He’s doing, He’s still doing great and wonderful things that can bring us hope in the darkest of days.

 

God brings us……

 

Hope for a better tomorrow.

 

Hope for resilience in times of trouble.

 

Hope for joy in the midst of sorrow.

 

Hope for lasting peace.

 

Hope for a love that never ends.

 

That’s the kind of hope that we need during this Advent season.  Instead of focusing on the gifts and the buying and even on all that we might be missing because of the darkness of our days, let’s focus on the HOPE that God brings to us because of Jesus.  Let’s dig in to the meaning of these holidays, let’s love our loved ones a little more, and let’s take some quiet time to appreciate that God’s hope is eternal and faithful.  Let’s make God’s hope our New Normal.