Ladera Ranch WyldLife: Hope in Jesus

Some nice shirts! 

While it was nice to have a break for Thanksgiving, I missed Campaigners and seeing all our middle school friends last week. It was so great seeing everyone this morning, and even meeting a few new kids.  This morning we even had a new girl leader come out! Kate, RockHarbor Mission Viejo's middle school director, came out to see what happens in Ladera on Friday mornings. It was so great having her dive in with the girls, and I look forward to working with her more.

Not too sure what carol this was...

Because it is Christmas time, and I have been listening to a ridiculous amount of Christmas carols (what can I say, I love Christmas music) we played a game dealing with classic Christmas songs. It was a game of charades where groups of kids had to act out certain Christmas songs and everyone would try to guess what song it was.

Founders is always fun on Friday mornings.

It was fun seeing what these kids came up with when it came to acting out the songs. For instance, for "Joy to the World" the group of guys just started frolicking around, and doing a really creative version of ballet. It was pretty funny seeing 6th grade boys acting like ballerinas!

"Joy to the World"

One of the other highlights was watching our leader Riley and Jackson act out "Grandma Got Run-over by a Reindeer." Christmas is such a fun time of year. I love that during a cold month with some of the shortest days of the year, we get to experience hope, joy, love, and celebration. What a welcome break this season is for these kids. You can feel it in the air.

After the game we made a transition into our small groups. Before we broke up I asked everyone what their favorite thing about this time of year was. We got so many different answers. From friends and family, to candy canes, to presents... almost everyone had something to share.

Jackson and Riley showing us how Grandma got run over by a reindeer 

I shared a story with the whole group about Christmas my 8th grade year. There was a certain thing I had asked for, something for archery (I was really into archery and bow-hunting that year). I had been asking my parents about it all month. I had researched it and figured out exactly what I wanted and which one was the best. I had all my hope for Christmas in getting this one thing.

I ended up getting it, but, as with almost every gift a kid gets at Christmas, by the next year it was long forgotten. I don't think I used it for more than a few months. But, that Christmas, it was all I was hoping for.

Hope is extremely powerful. Hope can get us through some extremely difficult times, and stoke the excitement in good times. Hope can literally fuel a person. Christmas is about Hope.

Hope is complex though. We hope because we know that there is something better, or there is something that could make life better, or there is something wrong that can be made right, or something is missing. A part of hope is often pain.

Its not hard to look around and see that things are not right. Bad things happen, often. People die, people get sick, there is great pain and suffering all over the place. Perhaps this season brings up some of this for you. Perhaps this season is a mixed bag for you. I know for me it is. Along with all the joy and laughter is the pressure of this season, and with all the parties and family, sometimes a feeling of loneliness can begin to grow, or the realization that things have just been pretty tough.

But this season is about HOPE. There is every reason to HOPE, even if its hard to see it.

This world is beautiful, and love abounds, but it is not the way it was supposed to be. People should not die because they can't afford to feed themselves. Natural disasters shouldn't be able to kill thousands at a time and completely destroy communities. Disease shouldn't be able to bring people full of life down. Families shouldn't fall apart, and pain and suffering shouldn't be a normal part of life.

This is where Jesus comes in.

Over the course of this semester we talked about some of the incredible things that Jesus has done. He healed a paralyzed man, brought a man that had been dead for 4 days back to life, calmed a storm, walked on water, gave a blind man sight, gave a woman no one cared about purpose, and countless other things. Jesus came into this world, and started making everything right again. I have talked a lot about Jesus restoring life, and making it possible for people to live full lives. Another way to talk about this is that Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to earth, and started making everything new.

Each time Jesus healed someone, restored someone, or loved someone others didn't, we see the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth... and this continues today. The Kingdom is coming, and in this we can have hope!

We read some verses from the Old Testament book of Isaiah today. This book was written long before Jesus was born, but the author of this book was told that God would send someone to begin making everything right again. When this book was written things were very wrong, and hope was hard to come by, but God whispered to one of his children the following words that are as true today as they were then: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have... increased their joy... you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warriors boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for fire. FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN, TO US A SON IS GIVEN... AND HE WILL BE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end."

What hope can be found in this! Jesus is alive, he was born about 2,000 years ago, and he lives today! He has come and has started something that he will finish. No matter where you are in life, your life was meant to be so much more, and in Jesus it can be. Jesus did not come to bring us a heavy burden of rules and regulations, but freedom in love, and the path to live a truly human life. Life as it was created to be lived.

Things are not the way they should be right now. Of this there is no question. Maybe its easy for you to ignore this, or maybe this fact is staring you in the face each day, and its a battle every day, but a day is coming when everything will be restored, made new. Have hope!

In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, towards the very end in chapter 21:3-5 we get a glimpse of something I hope for daily, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe EVERY TEAR from their eyes. There will be NO MORE DEATH or mourning or crying or pain, FOR THE OLD ORDER OF THINGS HAS PASSED AWAY." Then God said, "I am making everything new!"

Misplaced hope can be deflating, and it can begin to make hope seem silly... but in Jesus and the Kingdom that he has brought and is bringing, HOPE IS POWERFUL, and it is very real.

I pray that this year you experience hope. I know what it is like to be hopeless. It is dark, and it is ugly, but hope can begin to make everything seem lighter. It can give a dying heart a reason to beat again, and give energy to a tired body. Hope in Jesus is real.

Talking about hope