UNEXPECTED HOPE: How Christmas Brought Joy To The World

The years 2020–2022 were the most difficult season of ministry I have endured. 

I experienced doubt over every significant decision, disappointment and heartbreak over lost relationships. 

I felt out of sorts and out of step amid the crush of half-truths, misinformation, and propaganda. 

I felt like an outsider among people I have pastored for the better part of the decade, and I performed funeral after funeral after funeral—more funerals in a two-year stretch than I had done in the previous ten years.

I take consolation in the fact that I am not alone. We are all a little bit fried. Our doubts are a little more pronounced, our disappointments a little more grievous, our calamity a little more all-encompassing, and our grief all too real.

And while solidarity does give us a bit of comfort, true comfort only comes from God. 

Every year the church of Jesus Christ enters into the season of Advent intent on experiencing and extending the hope, joy, peace, and love that the arrival of the Messiah brings.

Christmas (Advent) is a season that reminds us that God has not forgotten us in our doubt, disappointment, loneliness, or grief. It is a time for the church to anticipate and celebrate the arrival of the Babe in Bethlehem. 

A Babe who brings hope and encouragement to the weary and brokenhearted.

Introduction to An Unexpected Hope by Dennis Moles.