You Cannot Live on Hope Alone...but you can't live without it either.

This video is from a speech by Harvey Milk shortly after he was elected to office in San Francisco. The video is about hope and today, Sunday, November 30 marks the beginning of our Advent season as we look forward and backward to the hope we have in Christ Jesus.

Today hope comes in many forms. We can look to Jesus as the source of our hope but then what? Is hope merely wishful thinking? Or, does it propel was forward into something greater? The hope in Jesus' first and second comings are meant to inspire us, not merely an assent to God. The hope we have believes a better world is possible. The hope we have motivates us to be better than we think is possible. And yet, it also reminds us that Jesus' hope for us is for us to rely upon him, trust him, and remain expectant in his ability to transform us, our community, and our world.

In some ways, its a dynamic tension--trusting God to care for the world and knowing that we have been empowered by God to work out the hope that God instills and inspires within us. How we go about doing that will be the recurring theme throughout this Advent season.

h/t Michael Piazza for the video.