Just yesterday, while filming our Advent Sermon Series video, it struck me just how important hope is as a Christian virtue. And not just the kind of starry-eyed hope of childhood, but rather something different, something that exists between the poles of naïveté and cynicism.
Hope must be able to survive our darkest moments, fully cognizant that life doesn’t always hand us what we want. Nevertheless our hope must believe that God is still able to take those disappointments and make them something significant.
An authentic hope sees the world for what it is, filled with joy and pain, beauty and darkness, and recognizes that God will ultimately have the last word, just as he once had the first word.
Hope is not, as Eugene Peterson once said, a “fatalistic resignation,” nor a form of dreaming in which we are protected “from our boredom or our pain.” Rather, it is “a confident, alert expectation that God will do what he said he will do.” (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction)
What has God promised to us in this season of Advent? What alert expectations should we have as we continue on the paths set out before us? Of course, the answer is found in God Himself: whose incarnation signals the great depth of His love and compassion for us. May we never lose sight of this promise.
Stu
Don’t Miss
The Latest From Our Blog
Check out articles, featured illustrations, and book reviews on all different topics related to ministry.
Book Review: Bono’s Surrender
We were 25 pubescent 13-year old boys in music class stuck to the straight-backed plastic chairs by our sticky sweat following a raucous hour of physical education at the parochial school we attended. We’d have a lecture on music theory, sing some corny songs, and...
The Banshees of Inisherin Movie Review
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or. what's a heaven for?" Robert Browning A part of our desire at The Pastor’s Workshop is to help pastors connect the stories in our culture with the stories taking place in culture. This is a somewhat fraught...
Working with a Church Board without Losing Your Mind
Do We Stay or Do We Go? It was June of 2020 and we had a major decision to make. As we went around our group of elders, each was given the chance to give their opinion: do we go back to worshipping in our sanctuary, or do we continue worshipping online? As the elders...
The Pastor’s Worskhop Library at a Glance
Sermon Illustration Pages
Sermon Quote Pages
Liturgy Pages
total pages of content
Illustrations
Quotes
Liturgy
Blog
Thoughtful and practical articles on a wide variety of subjects all ministry leaders face