There is a progression. Hope is the conviction that in
the end all shall be well. For the Christian, this conviction is rooted in
Christ alone. Peace is what we experience when we surrender the pretense—only ever
an illusion—that we are in control of our lives, and trust that Jesus, the
Prince of Peace, is sovereign. This surrender flows from the knowledge that, in
Christ, all shall be well. Joy is what we experience when we live undefended
lives, and are caught off guard by the sheer goodness, in its time, of all that
God has made, and the wonder of being part of that sheer goodness. This
requires an undefended posture, the fruit of peace. And in its turn, joy paves
the way for love, the experience of this sheer goodness as being deeply
personal and intentional. Love, of course, lays down another layer of hope—all shall
be well, because all is loved, and drawn to love—and so the progression—hope,
peace, joy, love—is a spiral staircase, on which we ascend to where Jesus is,
seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and on which we may also
descend, with him, into the darkest corners of our world, the times and seasons
when we, or those around us, are most in need of hope and peace and joy and
love.
This morning, I cleared a path through the snow to my
front door and gritted it so none would slip and fall. It was only a thin layer
of snow, the kind that turns to ice when walked on, the pressure of a footfall
melting the snow just enough to freeze again, treacherously; had the snow been
deeper it would have offered grip and would not have needed clearing. This day,
may you tread on the step of joy with confidence. You shall not fall.
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