'Calvin and Hobbes' Comic image by Bill Watterson

For in hope we were saved.  Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what is seen?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

                                                                                    --Romans 8:24-25

You know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon...everything's different.    

                                                                        --Bill Watterson (Creator of ‘Calvin and Hobbes’)

Dear Friends,

Perhaps it is the physical effect of Thanksgiving leftovers, but it usually takes me a while for my spiritual sensibilities to transition into the Advent season.   Watching?  Waiting?  Vigilance? I beg your pardon?  How very counter-cultural!  If the Old Testament prophets had been paying attention to our current marketplace at all, then they would know just how out of step they are with their messaging. 

Then again, perhaps they do know.  Admittedly, I suspect that they do.  In fact, if my reading of their witness is even close to correct, the disorientation of their Word is by design.  In that case, the perceived misstep is my own.  The same is true the unwillingness to take a step at all.  At the very least, when I recognized this week that the sweater which I pulled down from the top of the closet does not fit nearly as well as I remembered…well…allow me to confess that some notions of engaged discipline or even delayed gratification do seem rather foreign to me.

This year, of course, has been a different story for all of us.  Not that we are claiming to be in better shape, mind you, but the events of 2020 have led us to an intensely palpable sense of longing.  This year, the desire to “make things right” is as real as ever and the cries for salvation are not too faint to hear.  This year, Christians are only midway through the first week of Advent, but already it has taken the prophet Isaiah less effort to convince us that all is not well with the world. This year, in some cases, even the pursuit of scriptural holiness has begun to reemerge.  

All of the sudden, we are believers (though reluctantly so) that God may indeed be up to something here, even when we wish for little else than an escape.  As captured so well by my eleven year old son’s favorite philosopher, Calvin (not the Reformer, but the other one), the expression of the moment is something akin to reality continues to ruin my life or perhaps it’s not denial.  I’m just selective about the reality I choose to accept.

Or, in what is surely my favorite exchange:

Calvin: Know what I pray for?

Hobbes: What?

Calvin: The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference.

Not exactly the “serenity prayer” as I remember it, but fitting nonetheless!  Bill Watterson’s iconic childhood characters remind us that there are benefits to having a stuffed animal as your best friend.  First, you are only alone when you choose to be.  Second, when you are together, you have no excuse not to be blatantly honest with what you hope, think, or feel.  These are important opportunities for children, but what about the rest of us?  What now?

Do you still have a friend like Hobbes?  I certainly hope so.  At some point we all need that sort of relationship to become ‘in the flesh’ and to dwell among us.  Have you discovered the gift of talking with God in such ways through prayer?  I invite you to try a new conversation with Jesus Christ this Advent.  It may sound silly at first, or may take you a while to perceive much benefit in doing so.  In time, however, I believe you may find that having such a friend is well worth the wait. 

The witness of Paul in his letter to the Romans reminds us that Christian hope is more than just wishful thinking.  Much more!  As I suspect both Paul and Calvin would agree, sometimes it is the things that sound rather silly to us in the beginning that end up saving us in the end.

God of everlasting hope, we praise you for the revelation of grace, which leads us to understand that our faithfulness to you does not require absolute certainty.  Teach us also that easy certainty is a poor substitute for a living faith.  Help us, as disciples of Jesus, to bring the hope for your future into the present.  If we anticipate love, then let us love.  If we anticipate justice, then let us live justly.  For the sake of your coming peace, we pray.  AMEN.  

Grace to You,

Darren