Dare To Hope

I have become weary this Christmas season. 

I have become weary in life. Weary to hope. 

Because the risk of hope is disappointment. 

I listened to a sermon this morning about Christ and His glory; About not being able to find God in the monotony of our lives and the places that we once saw Him in our youth; at camps or around a campfire, or on a mountain top far away. The places that we once found Christ as youth are no longer options for us as adults. We are committed to careers and to spouses and children. Yet is it the case that our greatest times of faith were to be found in our youth? Are the reasons that we can no longer find God, because we have committed our time to the dreams that we set out as children to achieve? Somehow this does not seem how God intended it to be. 

This sermon challenged me rather, that we do not find God in the same wonder that we did in our youth, because we do not look for Him there. We have lost the whimsy and the belief of children. We have been run down by the monotony of this life.  G.K. Chesterton sums it up beautifully in this quote:

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” 

― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

In our maturity, we have grown fearful of hope; of the wild wonder of a child. The expectations of our God have faltered the same. In our "rationalization and sophistication," we are daring not to hope.

I have grown fearful of hope, for the risk of disappointment.  For me, hope has grown too risky. Yet Christ did not die on a cross, for me to live without hope.

This Advent season, may I challenge you with what I am challenging myself: To Dare to Hope. To seek out the whimsy and wonder that we once found as a child. To be reminded of Christ's possibilities as you see them in the children around you. More than anything, to dare to ask God to allow you to see his wonder and magnificence and beauty again. Because this Christmas season is the reminder of a God who risked becoming a man and did it all so that we could hope for more.

If you want to listen to the sermon, you can find it here Trinity: Isaiah 64:1-9