A couple of years ago I tore my calf
muscle while walking. It was pretty sad really. If I had been running it would
have been justifiable - but walking! It was nothing less than embarrassing. I
knew it would put the brakes on my activities for a couple of weeks, but two
years later I am still restricted in what I can do.
As age creeps on I find these kind of
physical interruptions come my way all too frequently. Likewise, just when I
think I’ve got life’s complexities organised something comes along and disrupts
everything in such a way that I can’t achieve what I was hoping to achieve.
About the time wrecked my calf muscle
I saw ‘The Terminal’, a film about a man (Tom Hanks) unable to leave JFK
airport for nearly two years because his country ceased to exist while he was
in flight. The movie is about his life being stuck between what was and what
might come. Not only was he stuck; for all intent and purpose he ceased to
exist. No passport, no ID, no money, no contact with anyone outside the walls
of the international arrivals terminal. It’s a great story. It’s a true story.
Yet “The Terminal” is not a sad
story. It’s a life narrative. There’s love, hope, anticipation, laughter,
frustration and anger. Where there is life, there is life.
This is the second week in Advent
(there are four leading up to Christmas) and this week I have been thinking
about hope and what makes it tick. Not so long ago I wrote, “Real hope has no
concept of tomorrow being better. It is not framed on the belief that the
future will turn out well.....Real hope is tougher than that. Real hope is an
attitude of living which provokes us to see things in new ways. It is not the flaky conviction that
life will turn out well, but the certainty that life will make sense,
regardless of how it turns out. It is akin to a night-light in dark times. Life
might be difficult, but it is OK.”
I think hope is the ability to see
life in all circumstances. Faith is what motivates us to live that life despite
the circumstances.
Apparently Christmas is a stressful
time for many people. It’s not just the money though. There are family issues
or painful memories that make Christmas a time to hide away. Celebration is a
distant thought. Yet in Christian theology it is for these people that Christ
came. Those who are stuck between what was and what is to come. Those without
hope or faith.
Christmas is a reminder that real
life is found in God through Jesus Christ. But here’s the best part: for those
who have no hope or cannot find God, in Jesus God comes to find us and in doing
so brings hope. Once seen, once understood, all that is required is the
smallest amount of faith to begin living our life again. Between what was and
what is to come there is life - it’s yours to live.
Digby Wilkinson © 2008