Finding Hope as We Journey Through Advent
This December, members of the Juniper Formation Leadership Team are sharing daily reflections through the Daily Ripple app and Substack. Join us as we explore the Advent themes of hope, peace, love, and joy. This week’s reflections are written by Amanda Creek.
Life-Giving Stream
Jeremiah 33:14 - “The days are coming," declares God, "when I will fulfill the good promise I made.”
God’s promises, when fulfilled, often feel like they should unfold with dramatic flair. Like a chorus of angelic voices blasting from on high. Yet, rather than earth-shaking, flood-making moments, fulfilled promises can be revealed quietly—a slow and steady transformation. Like a life-giving stream that shapes and nurtures the surrounding landscape, not through an instant and destructive flood, but through God’s faithful presence.
But it takes a millennia for a stream to cut stone. So, how do we hold onto hope when change takes time?
This question feels heavy. Jeremiah’s community needed change and fast. They were watching their city crumble—their world fall apart.
Yet Jeremiah clung to hope and told others to do the same. Despair was a reasonable response, but instead, he trusted in God's faithfulness. Maybe this is what hope looks like—choosing to trust in God's steady work, moment by moment, even when all we see is ruin.
Where do you see God's faithful presence flowing like a steady stream in your life or community? How might you join the flow of justice (Amos 5:24), even when change seems slow?
Risking Hope
Psalm 25:2 - “Don't let me be disappointed; Don't let my enemies triumph over me.”
Hope is a risky thing.
It requires trust and faith in the face of uncertainty. How can we trust what we don’t know?
And Disappointment is a trusty old friend.
It comes into each of our lives. Walks right in with its heavy boots and tells us, “To hell with hope. It’s safer to trust in cynicism, despair, fear, and resignation.”
And yet…
The Psalmist here is pleading with God against disappointment and defeat. It’s a vulnerable prayer—one where they likely understand the risk that comes with trust.
And while it takes courage to remain open to hope, with help, we can shift our perspective.
Hope then becomes a challenge for others to join hands. To brave this risky endeavor. To shake off these heavy boots, but to do so together. Hope isn't everything we need, but it's where we can begin.
When has hope felt risky or vulnerable in your own life? How do we maintain hope while honestly acknowledging our fears of disappointment?
Multiplying Hope
1 Thessalonians 3:12 - “May God make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.”
With the overflow of love comes the possibility for hope. And in love's immense abundance, hope can be multiplied—not just in our lives, but in the lives of those around us.
This verse speaks to that overflow, to what happens when we allow love to fill us until it, like water, breaks through a dam, then rushes out to fill every gap in the surrounding landscape. And in its wake, hope follows—spreading, rushing in, transforming not only us but everyone it touches.
Because unconditional love manifests goodness. And when we witness goodness, we crave more. In that craving hope blossoms, and though hope brings with it a sense of vulnerability, it also brings action.
How does growing love create hope in our world? What small act of love could you let 'overflow' today to spark hope in others?
Lift Your Head
Luke 21:28 - “Lift up your heads.”
In Psalm 3, the psalmist names God the “lifter of our heads,” yet in this verse from Luke, we are called to lift our own heads. Is this a contradiction? A challenge? A call for collaboration?
Hope, courage, trust, and perspective, all manifest differently in different seasons, sometimes it comes from within us and sometimes it only stems from divine grace.
So in disappointing moments, we can find strength in our community, leaning on one another to bolster our hope. When we despair, it’s time to call on the Spirit to collaborate with us, joining together to seek when it seems hard to find.
And when we feel utterly defeated and alone, that’s when God steps in and lifts our heads, allowing us to rely on their divine strength to get us through.
No matter how our heads are lifted, they are lifted just the same.
What helps you "lift your head" with hope when facing difficult situations?
A Gift & A Discipline
Isaiah 40:31 - "But those who hope in God will renew their strength."
Hope is a paradox.
It can come as a gift - in the evidence of love and goodness flowing into our lives. Yet, it's also a practice that we choose, a courageous turning toward possibility.
Regardless of how it comes to us, we know from this verse that God will renew our strength through hope. This renewal sustains us.
Advent allows for both receiving and practicing hope. As light breaks through darkness, we discover hope in our community and through the Divine. And just as we use ritual through Advent, lighting candles or marking off each day on the calendar, we can encourage hope to bloom within; to lift our own heads even when the darkness looms over us.
Receive hope as a gift. And practice hope as a discipline.
How does the season of Advent invite you to hope differently?
