Hope

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer." Rom 12:12

I have many things rattling around in my brain today. I have having trouble extracting the ideas of one class from another and from what's going on in my personal life. My understanding of certain ideas is not limited to one aspect of my life. I may be studying the Psalms in my Old Testament class, but I am seeing Advent in the Psalms. Advent is the season of hope, and all the Psalms whether they are cursing Psalms, lamenting Psalms, or praising Psalms end with hope. As one of my text books says, "For people who pray are people living in hope" [Ellen Davis--Getting Involved With God]. The Psalms are prayers and songs to God and about God from individuals and communities.
I am currently doing an Advent study on Advent hymns. At the same time, I am assisting a local church in their Advent children's pageant. My job is to help children from ages three or so through middle school learn Christmas songs. The songs they are learning are pretty traditional and include Once in David's Royal City, He is Born, Nino Lindo, and Away in a Manger. Just because I know these songs doesn't mean that these wonderful children do. What is old to me is new to them. I see great hope in the children for Advent to be over and for Christmas to come. Christmas means time off from school, special food, Christmas cookies, family time, etc. We are excited for Christmas to come, and we are expressing that through song.
So you can see the different threads running through my life today. My brain is buzzing with all these ideas, and I don't have them in a neat package yet. All I know is that today I have great hope from many different places. I have hope through children. I have hope through prayer. I have hope through song. I have hope through Psalms. I have hope through my community. I have hope through my friends even though I know many of them are struggling for different reasons. At this point in time I feel like I can only express my gratitude for the hope that is growing in my soul and to pass on what I am feeling.