Advent Devotional #2

Sick and Tired

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! 
But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:11-13


Do ever just get sick and tired of being sick and tired? Sick of hearing about evil people doing evil things? Tired of hearing about national disasters, tragedies, hunger, war, poverty? Tired of being bombarded with negative images from the media that portray the hopelessness of a world filled with people who do horrendous things? Sick of feeling a sense of despair that there is nothing we can do in the midst of so much pain? Do you just want it to end? We certainly have evidence everywhere that we are not living in a place where righteousness dwells.

It is hard to imagine what people must feel like when they think there is nothing more to life than what we can see . . . that there is no light at the end of the tunnel, that there is no hope for a new heaven and a new earth. As Christians, we don’t have to settle for the here and now as the ultimate conclusion of all things. We know that there is a promise that God is going to create a world where righteousness dwells.

In the midst of the frantic pace of the holidays, Christmas should be seen as the beginning of hope – hope that all the despair of this sin tragedy filled world will some day be no more. As we celebrate the birth of the One who came to save the world, we will do best to remember that this Savior, entering humanity as a helpless infant, came not only to make our day to day lives more bearable, but to give us hope that the best is yet to come.

Lord, help us to focus on how we might best live a life of holiness and godliness and remind us that we do so in anxious anticipation of a new and better world. Amen.