The Advent of Hope

A few weeks ago we all turned our clocks back one hour. It marked the end of Daylight Savings Time. It was an act that would shift the quantity of light in our days and nights. I've seen no opinion poll, but am sure there are those who embrace the change, and those who lament it; those who find greater acceptance of an earlier dawn versus an earlier dusk. Regardless, we all encounter days of less light as we move from the summer solstice to the winter counterpart on December 22.  Each day we have less light than the day before with correspondingly longer nights. It's significant to realize that this is our experience in the northern hemisphere; the people of the southern half of the earth are experiencing days of more light. Just as when we watch the light diminish with the setting sun, there are others with an opposite perspective experiencing greater light. Perspective is everything. So it with our experience of light and dark in the human condition.  If we take in the headline news accounts of this day, there seems to be a lot of darkness in the world. Across the globe countless lives are threatened by poverty, disease, and endless warring. If we take this in, even a little bit, we can be overwhelmed by the seeming darkness. Of course the challenges and difficulties of our own lives can dim our perspective as well. Again perspective is everything. Our current president ran a successful campaign based on the promise of restoring hope to Americans - it was an open invitation to exchange pessimism over the way things had been for positive expectation of a better life for all. Politics aside, this a powerful message rooted in spiritual reality. Hope is not some flimsy religious notion that denies reality in order to falsely buoy our spirits. Hope is the legitimate offspring of a true understanding of Reality. We too can carry an expectancy of greater good for our lives when we hold tenaciously to our primary assumption; that we are heirs to the Infinite Life and Love and Goodness of the Divine.  Heaven is metaphysically defined as "ever expanding good," and Jesus declared that it is "the pleasure of my father to give you this kingdom," and it is "spread before upon the earth."  Hope sees the apparent darkness of the human condition without losing awareness of an inner Presence, an interior Radiance that illuminates possibilities for good. A positive expectancy for life is not mere Pollyannaish wishful thinking, it is an attitude based upon the Supreme facts of Life - that there is nothing or nobody than can separate us from Ultimate Good. Life can toss us about, and we can sustain great losses, but whatever happens externally, "it will not come near us." We can take refuge in this Higher Truth through all the "dark days," knowing that the Light that enlightens every man and woman coming into the world is in you and me. This Light is foundational to our Being, universal, unconditional and deathless. It is the light by which we can navigate the uncertain and dangerous passages through life. It is a beacon of Hope that draws us ever forward like the Shepherds who followed a star in the East, that we too might be present at the scene of a blessed event - a scene where even in the lowliest of human conditions the Christ is born in the manger of our own hearts. May we begin this season of Advent by restoring Hope. Not the wimpy wishful kind. Let our hope be ignited by nothing less than the Light of God within our souls. This Light always leads us unerringly to recognition of Love made manifest in our life.