Hope, from a star

"When behold, the clouds are parted --
Westward, lo, a light gleams far!
Now his heart's true quest has started,
For his eyes have seen the star."
--- Welsh Carol

Aimless. No dreams, no goals. Nothing to look forward to. Bored. Burned-out. Have any of these adjectives ever described you during some period in your life? Man, they have me. And there is nothing that takes the color out of life faster than living purposelessly, nothing greyer or more lukewarm than living without an eye on the future. It will literally wear us out.
In this Welsh carol titled 'Dark the Night', the sage Melchior is imagined pondering, aimless, in his tower. Then, in the west, that star. You know the one. THE star; the one that set him and other sages on their journey to search for a baby King. And the light of that star illuminated not only Melchior's physical path, but his heart's path. He had a quest, a reason, a goal.
Melchior had hope. All because of a star.

Hope, meet fear

"The hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight."
---Phillips Brooks
"It starts when you're always afraid..."
---Buffalo Springfield

Confession time. This line from Buffalo Springfield has always resonated with me. Or has it haunted me? Something about it is a little menacing, insidious, creeping. Something about it is true. Because it DOES start when you're always afraid: your life begins to shrink; your desires become all about security; your fears crowd out any concern for others you once mustered. Your world is tiny and self-consumed when fear rules it. And you know something else? This world will make you afraid. Look out your window or on your homepage, or maybe into your family room, and you see there is plenty of reason for fear.
But. But. If "For What It's Worth" has always struck a chord in me, so has the plaintive American carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem", most especially the line quoted above. "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." Brooks, writing at the end of the Civil War, certainly was acquainted with fear. When he looked toward Bethlehem, though, he saw the warm glow of hope faintly lighting its silent streets.
Is hope a thing that can meet our fear head-on, and come out standing? Does the hope born so long ago in Bethlehem, a little backwater town unaware of its destiny, have 'legs'? Staying power? Can that hope, realized in a simpler world, stand up to the fears that crowd our complex, evolved lives? Can the hope of  the Christ Child take on the fears of a very adult world, like yours and mine?
Maybe so. I feel it in my life. Or as Buffalo Springfield put it, "Something's happenin' here."
Hope, meet fear.

Hope, all topsy-turvy

"Welcome, all wonder in one sight,
Eternity shut in a span,
Summer in winter, day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man!
Great little one! whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth."
---Crashaw, 1648

For the "99%" of the ancient world 2000 years ago, a society turned upside-down would have been reason for hope. Living hand-to-mouth within sight (or at least knowledge) of those living in relative luxury and ease, generation after generation, with no relief, had drained the common folk of hope. But then --- oh, then --- let the paradoxes begin piling up! With the birth of a Baby, God wrapped in people-skin, a vulnerable King, the world starts tilting. This birth, this night, could change everything. For on this night, the chasm between earth and heaven is bridged, and there is the possibility, the chance, that the world could change.
I would say that stranger things have happened, but I don't know. In the wonder of this birth, topsy-turvy hope is born.

Hope, with some teeth

Advent I, the first Sunday in Advent, and the week to follow, are devoted to the concept of 'hope'. Now there is a word with a spectrum of uses and meanings.
"Hope you feel better."
"I hope I get it!" ---thanks, A Chorus Line
"Hope you have a great bday!" ---thanks, FB
"Faith, hope, and love, these three remain; but the greatest of these is love." ---St. Paul
See what I mean? There's hope, then there's h-o-p-e. I have been convinced that hope is powerful, in part because of an analysis of the last quotation above. A gifted and thinker and preacher begged to differ with Paul on his hierarchy; hope, not love, is most valuable in life. His point was that, without hope, it is hard to have faith or love.
My journey has taught me a similar lesson. Love without hope turns into desperation. Faith without hope turns into dogma. Hope enlivens both love and faith, growing and expanding them within us and among us.
The best case for hope? The reason to hang on, even when the present seems dark and the future uncertain?
God is for us. For you. For me. God is FOR us.
Hope, with some teeth...

close my eyes, and leap...

Well, here goes. My attempt at a blog, and one that I hope will be satisfying for me and for anyone who should stumble upon it, or seek it out intentionally. Beginning tomorrow is the season of Advent in the Christian church -- the period of anticipation and preparation for the arrival of the hope, peace, joy, and love that we long for in the arrival of the Child. During Advent and Christmastide (those Twelve Days we've all sung about), I'll be blogging meditations on the season. If religion is not your 'thing', I encourage you not to abandon me; you may find that hope, peace, joy, and love just may be.
So. Let's go, you and I...