Hope for more!

Pop up tents, lawn chairs, and lines of eager shoppers filling the sidewalks. Their expectation was to find that perfect bargain, that outstanding purchase advertised for “black Friday.” The cameras, however, didn’t focus on the scene as hours later some left disappointed and discouraged, their anticipation thwarted.

Pop up tents, lawn chairs, and lines of eager shoppers filling the sidewalks. Their expectation was to find that perfect bargain, that outstanding purchase advertised for “black Friday.” The cameras, however, didn’t focus on the scene as hours later some left disappointed and discouraged, their anticipation thwarted.

We are wired to hope, to dream, and to anticipate. Then why, so often, after anticipating some great event, we leave somewhat disappointed? Can it be that we are fixing our hope, our expectation, on things not designed to deeply satisfy. One of my favorite quotations comes from C. S. Lewis in his essay, The Weight of Glory.

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

This first Sunday of advent highlighted biblical hope, God’s staggering promise of His provision not only of forgiveness and new life through Jesus, but the certain assurance of His Second Advent and restoration of all things. Shall we choose to lift our eyes toward that seaside holiday? Shall we fill this holiday season with expectation, with hope, while we await God’s new work in history, the Second Advent, in which He will again reveal Himself to the world? All the while we understand in a profound sense that the even the best, the highest of our expectations will fall far short of the reality that our Lord’s Second Advent will reveal!

So while we wait, in lines, at the post office, in traffic during this holiday season, let’s choose to capture that moment of delay and lift our eyes to out true and future hope (I John 3:2-3) guaranteed by the first advent. Let us raise our eyes from the mud pies and anticipate the true seaside holiday yet to come. Let our anticipation rest on His goodness and allow our lives, in the midst of a chaotic world, reflect His peace.

Here's a perfect example of a change of focus! http://www.youtube.com/user/AlphabetPhotography