Advent Reflection: What are you longing for?  What (or who) are you hoping in?

• Isaiah 61:11 “The Sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise him!”
• “While optimism makes us live as if someday soon things will soon go better for us, hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present, with the deep trust that God will never leave us alone but will fulfill the deepest desires of our heart...” –Henri Nouwen
• The Ways of Men (youtube video; song by Steve Padgett, performed by Mark Heard)