Holding hope for ourselves

Hope on behalf of others. Hope in solidarity with all creation. And, finally, we hold hope for ourselves.

A huge reason why I’m doing this writing project is that it generates hope for me. Not hope in myself, like “Hey, I’m awesome!” But hope for myself, like “Wow, there is promise in who I am.”

The truth is, a lot of times, especially in a dark, hectic season like this, it’s really hard to have hope for who we are, who we’ve been, or who we’re becoming. It’s much easier to be self-critical, undermining our purpose, our beauty, our belovedness.

The hope of this season is that in Christ’s light, we can find light for ourselves.

I’m spending this season pursuing the impossible light as much for me as I am for you. Maybe more so. It’s in pursuing the light, talking about the light, trying to discover it through all the blur and struggle and cold and darkness that I can begin to recognize how God is using my life.

As I pursue the light, I become a mechanism for the light to refract through and shine out from. I discover that the light is actually in me, part of my created nature, embedded there because I am a child of God. (And guess what? You are too…)

I hope that this season, you can have hope for yourself. I hope that by reflecting on how God became like us (human, fragile, yet full of rich purpose), you can discover that there is hope in the light you hold and refract as well.

God became a child to set us free, to light us up, to give us hope for who we are, to call us to help transform the world. The impossible light is in you, hoping you’ll wake up to it and shine it out today.

Holding hope with you,

Seth

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