I wonder if you’ve ever had a moment were you’ve just watched the news or read the paper and seen what’s going on in the Middle East or somewhere else in the world and felt the absence of anything hopeful. The sense that things are going to improve and get better. I think we all as humans have that underlying need to have hope.

If you search for songs with a theme of Hope within them the list is a little longer than you might expect. So, it seems to be something that a lot of us need. Emelie Sandé sings ‘I just hope I'm not the only one’, Jack Jackson sings ‘you better hope you’re not alone’.

It’s said that antidote to any despair might be hope, experts say. It’s one of the most powerful—and essential—human mindsets, and possible to achieve even when it feels out of reach.

“Hope is a way of thinking,” says Chan Hellman, a psychologist who’s the founding director of the Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma. “We know it can be taught; we know it can be nurtured. It’s not something you either have or don’t have.”

As we begin our journey through Advent this year with the prospect of Christmas fast approaching. I wonder if we need to be reminded that the hope that God, our Heavenly Father offers us, is much more robust. It is rooted in the reality of all that he came in human form as a vulnerable baby to bring.

As we enjoy time catching up with friends and family over the next few weeks and the Christmas period itself. Let’s take the opportunity to be thankful that we live in peace in comparison to others across the world and don’t often fear for our safety.

Let’s take the opportunity to be generous with what we have. So that those in more vulnerable situations financially and otherwise might have the chance for that grounded hope to be nurtured in their situation and circumstance.

Perhaps as you journey through Advent, you might join us in praying for the hope of the Christ child to stir our hearts and remind us that we are not alone.

Together we can work towards making our community a more hope filled place.

With Christmas blessings

Katie