What does “hope” really mean?

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent in the Christian calendar, and traditionally the first Sunday represents “hope.”

I’ll be honest and say that I’ve always struggled with the idea of hope. To me, it’s seemed like another word for optimism. Not that that’s a bad thing at all — I’m a very optimistic person, and I always try to find the good in everything. But I’ve never really understood the theological reason for the subject of hope to be so predominant throughout scripture. Until now.

According to Webster dictionary, hope is “cherishing a desire with anticipation; to want something to happen or be true.”

So often, I simply tell God that I’m trusting Him because I know He has everything in control. I trust Him with my life and with my relationships and with my career and with everything. And that’s good. God wants us to trust Him. But that’s not all He wants us to do. He wants us to have hope in Him.

Without hope, trust is empty and futile. There’s no anticipation. Trust becomes easy and religious; it becomes pharisaical — blind to expectation and a strict adherence to the things we trust.

Hope brings that sense of expectation that God is going to do what He said He’s going to do and that He will fulfill His promises.

It’s not blind optimism. It’s anticipating in Someone.

And that’s what Christmas is all about. It’s the celebration of the moment God began to fulfill His promise that He will reunite us back with Him in a personal relationship.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Walking

A popular parable describes a person walking along the beach while being shown images throughout their life. There are two sets of footprints in the sand — the person’s and God’s — until tragic moments are displayed, during which God explains that the set of footprints were His, and He was carrying the individual through those moments.

The reason why this parable is so popular is because it reveals the loving and supportive nature of God, and I think it’s a good analogy for how God cares for people through times of crisis. However, as with any analogy, we can take it too far, and I think the danger with “Footprints in the Sand” is that we imagine God carrying us through all of life.

The Christian life is a journey. It’s a process of learning to be more like Christ and discovering what it means to live in the Kingdom of God. While there is plenty of biblical evidence that God will certainly carry us through times of hardship, I believe God wants us to journey with Him. So often we pray that God will guide us to where He wants us to be, as if He’s pushing or even carrying us to wherever He wants us. Instead, I think He wants us to journey with Him, trusting and leaning on Him to discover the next steps.

I do not like change. I’m uncomfortable with the unknown. I like to know where I’m at and where I’m going, so blindly following an unseen God to uncertainty is a real struggle for me. But I also know the goodness of God, and I know that a true relationship with Him involves a mutual trust: me trusting that He will daily guide each step as I lean on Him, and Him trusting in me that I will listen to His voice.

Allow God to hold and carry you through times of tragedy, but I also invite you to walk with Him through this crazy journey we call life.

Cold Day

I hate the cold. I hate having to bundle up into five layers just to take out the trash. I hate having to scrape off my car because it’s covered in ice. I hate the cold, except for one thing: it forces me to slow down.

The coldness outside makes me unwind for a second and reflect. It draws me back to the warmth of inside.

I love nature and being outside in God’s creation, but I’ve also begun to learn the beauty of turning down the lights, lighting a candle, and being still before my Creator.

For someone as extroverted and energetic as me, this can be incredibly intimidating, let me tell you. But the contemplative life — the quiet, prayerful meditation that only comes when you’re still — is critically important to deepening a relationship with our Creator.

Being surrounded by nature on a warm, sunny day is beautiful, but so is listening to the soft whisper of God in a quiet room on a cold day.

Tale of a King

Once upon a time, there lived a great and mighty king. This king ruled over the people with tremendous love and mercy. He genuinely cared for every one of his subjects. Throughout the week, everyone would gladly work hard and make sure the land was prosperous. At the end of the week, they would all attend the royal ball that the king would host in his great palace. Every man, woman, and child would dress in their finest suits and gowns. They would sing and dance, and the king would fill the banquet table with the most delicious food and drink you can imagine. You could see it in his eyes — the great love he had for his people, and it gave him immense joy to see his people so happy.

One night, something was different. Out of the thousands of gowns twirling and voices singing, the king noticed someone was missing. A child — a young girl with a crippled leg — was not in attendance.

So the king commanded his son — a young and mighty prince who cared just as much for the kingdom as his father — to go find her. For an entire week, the prince searched every square inch of the kingdom.

In a far, dark corner just outside the kingdom domain, the prince finally found the young child caught helpless in a ravine. As the prince began to pick her up, an evil witch appeared.

“The child is mine,” snarled the witch. “I tricked her into believing I could make her more beautiful than the king ever could.”

The prince looked down at the young crippled girl and asked if it was true. “All of the other children tease me for my bad leg,” admitted the girl shamefully. “The crutches make me ugly, and I just want to be able to run and dance like all of the other children. But now I just want to go home.”

“Dear child, the king loves you more than you can imagine. You may not be able to run like the other children, but I promise you are special for a reason.”

The witch bartered with the prince. “If the king wants her, then you must stay and pay the price. As the law declares, if a subject steps into my kingdom, they must die here. She can leave if you die.”

So the prince placed the young girl on his horse and sent her back to the king. The witch bound his hands, tied a rock to his feet, and threw him into the nearby lake. As the horse guided her back to the kingdom, the young girl looked over her shoulder to see the ripples fade away.

The next morning, the young girl woke up to notice that she was riding on the horse with the prince walking next to her. Startled and confused, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and asked what happened.

“The witch was crafty. What she said about the law is correct. Someone had to die in order for you to return home. But what the witch does not know is that I have the power of the king. Because I sacrificed myself, that power brought me back to life, and now I’m able to guide you home.”

Throughout the rest of their journey, the prince taught the young girl all about the king. As they arrived back at the palace, another royal ball was just about to begin. As the crowd split, the young girl hobbled up with her crutches to the center of the floor where the mighty king stood waiting.

The prince took her crutches as the king picked up the girl into his arms. At that moment, a violin began to play a waltz, and for the next few minutes, the entire kingdom watched as the majestic king danced with the lost, crippled child.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” —John 1:14

Simple

If you’ve read anything by me, you probably know I love telling stories. I love painting pictures in the minds of others using nothing but words. Whether it be a divine letter, a dream by a lake, or a dragon fight, I love to think as creatively as possible.

If you love to read these stories, then this post might disappoint you. I’m not here to paint a word picture tonight. Instead, I want the simplicity of this post to ring the following truth loud and clear. I want it to resonate in your mind. The fact is…

God wants a meaningful, positive relationship with you.

Now, I could take this post in a million different ways from this point forward. That’s the beauty of God. We can’t see God and have only the bible and our spiritual experiences to explain it, so a relationship with God is incredibly complex.

But I’m going to keep it simple for right now. Because that’s what Christmas celebrates: God making it all simple.

Two-thousand years ago, God said enough of all these rules, regulations, prophetic analogies. He said here I am — in the flesh — so that you can experience my love first-hand. I want you to have a meaningful, positive relationship with me so much that I am going to live with you. I’m going to heal the sick, love the sinners, teach the teachers, and ultimately surrender my life to you so that you can be free of what burdens you. So that you can love the One who loves you.

So my simple challenge to you is one this:

Do you want a meaningful, positive relationship with God?

If your answer is yes, then let it be the most meaningful relationship you have. Embrace it. Let God’s love consume you. Let that love be on the forefront of your mind from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. Starting today, make that relationship a priority this year.

”For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

No gift exchanges this year

We love to raise people on a pedestal. We’re amazed when talented musicians play their instruments, and we marvel at intricately painted artwork. We’re motivated by powerfully-delivered inspirational speeches, and we’re moved by beautiful writing.

What makes these gifted people so special? Has God uniquely blessed them with extra talent? I would say no. The difference is how they use their gifts.

God has not gifted people a unique amount of talent, but rather gifted every person with a unique gift. It is how we use our gift that determines whether our gift is seen by the rest of the world.

It’s easy to see the gifts in others, and it’s even easier to become envious of other gifts. But what if we realized that the gifts we have are just as powerful and unique as those we admire?

First Christmas Letter

In the vast emptiness of space, outside of time itself, I existed. Rather, I always existed. In fact I created everything there ever was. With a single word I spoke every galaxy into motion and filled them with all kinds of planets, spinning them all into orbit. There was one special planet. In it I carved mountains and oceans, and filled them with all kinds of living creatures. Everything was good, but something was missing.

See, I am love. I wanted to show my love through my creation, so I created you in my own image. You would reflect my love in a perfect, intimate relationship. You would work but not feel pain… we would walk and talk… I would know you and you would know me.

But then something happened. We couldn’t be close anymore. Not like we were, anyway. You stopped being able to see or hear me. You all started being mean and hurtful to each other. Comparing yourselves, treating poor people, sick people, traveling people, women and children, like they were less than human… you all even started killing each other. I’ve been trying to guide you and help you know how to love yourselves and each other, but you aren’t listening to me.

So, I have a plan (I always do). I’ll become just like you and live with you. I’ll be born as a baby, grow as a child, and live as a human being. I’ll experience what you experience, and I’ll feel what you feel. I’ll have growing pains, I’ll be laughed at in school, I’ll make friends — some of whom will stick by me, others will betray me. And in the end, I will die for you. (But that’s for another letter.)

You won’t understand it all, but that’s okay. The maker of the universe, the God of all creation, entering humanity as a child, being raised by a poor family is all really hard to comprehend. But know this: I am doing it all out of love. To show my love, for you to know my love, and for you to love each other.

After all, this isn’t any ordinary letter. It’s a love story. And this is the first Christmas letter.

Love,

God

When Laughter Cries

Two years ago today, the world lost one of the funniest men who ever lived: Robin Williams. The man was a comedic genius, yet this post is not about him specifically. It is about the way the world lost him.

Honestly, I don’t want to talk about this subject because it’s not a happy topic. But this world has lost too many people to suicide, and that breaks my heart.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US for all ages, and it is the second leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year old Americans. Additionally, it is the third leading cause of death in the world for those aged 15-44 according to the World Health Organization (WHO), so culture, ethnicity, and race don’t matter when it comes to suicide.

Now enough about statistics. What can we do?

When I first think about this topic, my gut reaction is that I have no idea. Life is so precious, and I can’t begin to imagine someone ending their life. I care so deeply about people, and it hurts to think that someone has come to the ultimate conclusion that the world would be better off without them.

So my second reaction is love.

For goodness’ sake, love people.

I mean, isn’t that what God commanded us to do in the first place? Love your neighbor as yourself, right? (I’d put the biblical references here, but since it’s mentioned several times in the bible, God must have really meant it).
I realize I’m a big-picture kind of person, and some of you might need a little more evidence. How about the fact that “80%-90% of adolescents that seek treatment for depression are treated successfully using therapy and/or medication”? (Source: SAVE)

This isn’t the cure-all for suicide. The people I know who have been the victims of suicide were well-loved, so suicide will never just magically go away. But I can’t help but wonder what this world would look like if we all just made a little more effort to genuinely love the people around us and showed a little more patience with annoying strangers.

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to a loved one or call the national suicide hotline at 1 (800) 273-8255. It’s okay to not be okay, but it’s not okay to stay that way.

No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world. —Dead Poets Society

The best thing about fall

Fall is my favorite season, and I don’t even care that my reasons are all cliché. I love breaking out the hoodie on a cool evening, drinking apple cider, watching football, carving pumpkins with friends, and you better believe I will definitely go out of my way to step on that crunchy leaf. There’s just one problem with fall: it inevitably leads to winter.

If you know me at all, you know I absolutely hate cold weather. Having to bundle up in at least three layers of clothes just to take the trash out is obnoxious. Sure, snow is great around Christmas, but even Santa goes back home the next day.

It would be easy to let the prospect of winter ruin fall for me. Knowing that blistering cold weather is coming could make me miss the magic of a walk on a cool, clear evening. But I won’t let it. Life has a way of blinding us to the awesomeness of the moment. We become preoccupied with what’s coming next that we forget to enjoy the present.

So, in a way, the best thing about fall might actually be winter. Even though the challenge of harsh, cold weather is coming, fall reminds us to slow down and savor the transition. Whether you’re enjoying the company of friends around the campfire, sharing memories with family during the holidays, or making it your secret mission to conquer every crunchy leaf, cherish every moment.

Happy fall, everyone!

This post goes to you

This post goes out to everyone…

to the 9th grader getting ready to start high school…

to the brand new teacher getting her classroom ready…

to the graduate still trying to find a career…

to the employer trying to find the right new employee…

to the girl trying everything to make him love her more…

to the guy trying to impress his girl…

to the kid on the playground who got picked last…

to the kid on the playground who did the picking…

to the insomniac still awake at night…

to the recently divorced, wondering what went wrong…

…life sucks sometimes. Plans don’t always go the way we want, people disappoint us, and vending machines steal our money and won’t give us our M&Ms. Life can be tough and unfair.

But it doesn’t end there. There’s something you should know and never, ever forget…

…you were created for a reason. You were not brought into this world by chance or by accident. Your life has a purpose. Whether you realize it or not, you are impacting the world around you every day. And you have gifts and talents that no one else can do.

God never said life would be easy, but what he did promise is that he would help you through tough times. And that promise is to everyone.

Josh Mifflin

thoughts and wonderments

Author: Josh Mifflin