We are in a crazy time this year, and on some days, it feels hopeless. We are trying to get through the pandemic, move on past the election, and find a new perspective for 2021, but there’s just so much going on. We want to look ahead with hope but what are we hoping in? Is it a political outcome, a vaccine, a change in our circumstances?

When we look to these things for hope, we can set ourselves up for a cycle of disappointment and despondency. Today we are talking about finding hope in Emmanuel, God with Us.

We are so thrilled to have Kristi McClelland with us on our podcast this week. Kristi is an author, professor, speaker, and biblical culturist. Kristi teaches the Bible through its original historical, cultural, linguistic, and geographic context. This approach helps build a bridge to help us understand the world and culture of the bible to know what the authors meant and show us who the living God is, what he’s like and what it’s like to walk with Him.

When Kristi was 21 years old, as a senior in college, she lost her father unexpectedly to cancer just a few weeks after diagnosis. It was devastating and felt like the rug was pulled out from under her. Her whole world changed in a moment. As she was mourning and hurting, she would sleep with her Bible under her pillow so she could read a psalm or just a few words of comfort.

Now, years later, Kristi has faced other reasons to need comfort and hope, just as we all have. We all need anchors of hope and, as believers, we have a living Hope in Christ – a hope that is alive, breathing, walking around, able to meet us in our troubles. In times like these, Kristi prays, “Lord, I need your hope to find me because I don’t have it in me to find it.” I’m upside down, I feel disoriented, so find me, find me and usher in that hopefulness.” Kristi describes Living Hope as different from hope that is experienced as a feeling which is how it’s talked about in other world religions. “Our hope is not based in a certain theology, rhythm, or practice. Our hope is based on a man, a living resurrected man. It’s not just that Jesus came but that He is still here, living, moving, breathing, having his way, shepherding us through our lives.” So, hope isn’t a thing, it’s not a feeling. “Our hope is living because Jesus is alive and, in our lives, right now, shepherding our lives in ways known and unknown in mystery and uncertainty. We’re all going to fool around and make it - because of Him. We are going to fool around and make it through this season, as we have every season of devastation and loss that comes before, because it’s not just that He came to earth. He came to earth, He is here, and He’s coming again one day. So, we live in the twilight of who He is so it’s Living Hope.”
After the loss of her Dad and again now in 2020, Kristi shares, “We’ve all had longing and aching this year, for things past and for things ahead. The Bible says God longs for things too.” Kristi says this truth is found in Isaiah 30:18 which says, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion.” Kristi learned it when she lost her dad and she’s learning it again this year. “Compassion is the fusion of two words. “Com” means “with” and “passion” comes from “pathos” which means “pain”. So, compassion in the Biblical world is not an emotion. It’s a location. Compassion means positioning yourself with people in their pain. The Bible here in this verse is saying that the Lord longs to position himself with us in our pain. He rises to show us compassion. “You think of all those seasons in life when maybe you’ve thought, “Oh I need to clean myself up before I come to God” or “Why am I having another meltdown?” “Why can’t I get it together? Why is everybody else smarter, quicker, better, faster, stronger than me, and I’m the one behind, struggling?” The Bible...