Advent Week 1

Hope For Those Who Wait

Wednesday, December 4

An Advent Thought

Greg C. Earwood

“…those who wait for the Lord…”

The words of Isaiah, a prophet during the Exile:  “…those whowait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31; for some context, read the whole chapter).

The Hebrew verb “wait” or “trust” also means to “hope.”  I would like to suggest that the prophet encouraged the exiles to wait with a “relentless hope.”

“Relentless hope” is a phrase I “baptized” from a book on leadership by Richard L. Hester and Kelli Walker-Jones, Know Your Story and Lead with It.  Dr. Steve Hadden, good friend, former pastor at Faith, and Assistant to the President at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, pointed me to the authors’ use of“relentless optimism.”  Borrowing from the language ofnarrative therapy, the authors speak of leading with “relentless optimism” because God is “constantly at work in our personal and collective stories… to offer an alternative narrative.”

Narrative therapy does not ignore the presenting problems or negative issues.  Nor should we as Christians.  And yet we cope with “relentless hope.”

In the season of Advent, let us re-tell the stories of the birth of Jesus as reminders of God’s alternative narrative of light and peace in a world that is too often dark and violent.  May we see the work of God in our stories – our individual stories, our stories together in the life of the church, the stories of humankind made in the image of God.  

“…those who wait with relentless hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

May this be so.