Yesterday, I was temporarily overwhelmed by human need. Everywhere I looked there were challenges, disappointments, and sins. The weight of it pressed on me as though a heavy burden was laid on my shoulders. As I conducted a Bible Study in a jail, I saw men and women with need, many of them slaves to drugs and/or alcohol. Most of those at that table have lived in a cycle of brokenness that stretches back for generations! The police called me asking for the church to assist a homeless man who had spent the night on the street in the cold rain. He was miserable, soaked to the skin, stinking, and without hope. That was just the local stuff!
The news media brought me plenty of reasons to be filled with despair! Terrorism, despite our best and expensive efforts, continues to be a potent threat in much of the world. Militant Islam is on the march. American soldiers are still on alert in Iraq, facing a shadowy foe that attacks from nowhere and fades back into the general population. It's been a year of terrible disasters that are still causing misery in various parts of the globe - the tsunami that devastated the Pacific region just after Christmas last year, the storms that raged across the Southeast United States leaving a major city in ruins and thousands of Americans living in third world conditions, the earthquakes that killed tens of thousands in Pakistan and destroyed an entire region's infrastructure.
"OK, OK, enough of that," you say, and I agree! From where comes hope?
Another man was wrestling with disappointment. His fiancé was pregnant and he knew that he wasn't the father! Into the darkness of that man's broken dreams, an angel spoke of hope. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21, NLT) The angel urges that man to look past his problem to God's answer! Joseph was drawn into God's great plan to bring a Light to the World. By faith he became part of that plan, and went ahead with his marriage to Mary and extending the security of his home and love to the baby who would change history by his life.
John opens his Gospel with the declaration - "What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out." (John 1:4-5, The Message) There is HOPE for those who look to the Light.
The solution to human need begins with the transformation of the heart. That transformation is the result of a supernatural intervention- God stepped into the world, born the son of a virgin mother, to bring us Light, so that we might see our way back to our Father, to life, and to Heaven. "Jesus," the name means "God saves!" Christmas is about hope for a hopeless world. It's not a temporary lift that comes from celebrations and decorations. It about the possibility of real and lasting change for those who will look to the Light!
It begins with you and me, individually, responding to the Spirit's invitation. That weight I felt in my soul yesterday was actually God's invitation to fall to my knees and look up, past my insufficiency, to Him. I cannot change even my own life by my best efforts, so what would lead me to conclude that I could change my world? But, Jesus, the Savior, makes me a child of God, a son filled with Heaven's hope, and resources me to meet the needs that come my way. If you're beset by need, overwhelmed by life's challenges, look to the Light! Then, together, you and I and millions of others who are Light-bearers will bring the blazing brightness of His light to the darkness.
John says,
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
1:14-15 The Message
Let the Light shine!
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