Hope

Last week I was asked to share a few words at an event. Since then those words have continued to echo in my heart so I thought I'd share them here with you.

Enjoy and have a blessed Christmas season.

Hope is what I feel

What I crave

What I breathe this time of year.

It is the end of one year,

The beginning of the next

And the celebration of Jesus our Messiah in between 

That has hope calling to me during this season.

It's the tangible anticipation of goodness-to-come that fills me with wonder of possibility.

It is the fragile, tender places of my heart that looks to Hope for healing and newness. 

It is my hard-won, confident expectation that God is still in this 

With me

For me

That keeps me looking forward to what comes next.

It is Hope that births vision.

It is the Hope of what could be that sets our hearts to dreaming and our creative minds to strategizing.

Hope is a dangerous thing though. 

Dangerous, but not necessarily negative. 

It can cause restlessness and yet be a catalyst for change. 

It can open the door to newness.

And it can make us uncomfortable.

I know - for me, sometimes - when Hope takes root, 

I can feel too contained

Too limited 

Too anxious in the now

As I wait for Hope to be realized.

Hope can also make us overlook 

The goodness of the present 

And the faithfulness of the past.

Let us take a brief moment to savour what has been and what is.

Let us marinate in the beauty of where Hope has taken us thus far.

Let the flood of Hope realized, Hope exceeded, overwhelm us..

And as we fill our hearts with that

Thrill of Hope 

That causes weary Souls to Rejoice

Let us remember that God is with us.

We are His kids, the Ones He loves with boundless, wild abandon. 

He delights in us.

Simply because we are His.

So, let us come together 

With our eyes on Him

Our hearts turned toward Hin

And our ears tuned into Him

For it is His good pleasure to 

Hear the desires of our hearts 

And answer our prayers 

And our Hopes -

But not in any way our limited imaginations could conceive

He answers in His generous, abundant, doting-Dad kind of way. 

He loves to blow our minds with His goodness

So let's just soak it in

Let's bask in His goodness

And open our hearts 

To Possibility 

To Hope

To Wonder.