Advent Reflections

​By Sam Gutierrez
 
For the next four weeks, we will be featuring four Alger Park members as guest writers on the blog.  This year for Advent, we’ll be doing a series around the theme of “Hope” and I’ve asked them to write something based on this theme:

• Week 1: Hope for Intervention – Annalise Kontras
• Week 2: Hope for Comfort – Jamie Reynolds
• Week 3: Hope for Good News – Nancy Vander Meer
• Week 4: Home for Home – Lauren Cooper

 
In this season of diminishing light, while we huddle at home in the midst of a global pandemic, these writers will share thoughts, stories, reflections, and questions as fellow pilgrims on the journey.  None of these good folks have seminary degrees or theological doctorates.  They are just ordinary people who are trying to say a deep and heartfelt “yes” to the call of Jesus to “follow me.”  If you have been following Jesus for any length of time, then you know the path of discipleship is not one confident step in front of the other.  Rather, it’s like a wandering in the desert – there's a clear destination in view, but often you feel lost and turned around half (if not most!) of the time – one step forward, two steps back.  My hope is that as you read these upcoming blogs, each writer will light a candle for you – a light shining in the darkness as we reorient ourselves once again and head towards home. 
 
Waiting is not easy.  We get impatient.  We get frustrated.  Even the prospect of waiting in a long line at Chick-Fil-A has us looking for another place that sells waffle-cut fries.  But waiting is also soul shaping.  As we wait, we grow.  As we wait, we breathe deep and steady allowing the spiritual “room” inside of us to expand.  Yes, waiting is hard, but hope marks our waiting with expectation – knowing that the one who makes promises will always come through.