PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Consider the words of a hymn, one that, thankfully, was part of several of our church services during this Christmas season.

O Holy Night

The stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth

 

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope a weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

 

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices

O night divine, O night when Christ was born

O night divine, O night, O night divine

 

Truly He taught us to love one another

His law is love and His gospel is peace

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother

And in His name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise His holy name

 

Just think for a moment about those words, including these sentences: “His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. And, in his name, all oppression shall cease.”

Love and peace. No one is a slave to another. Oppression shall cease.

Doesn’t sound like this world, does it? Because it’s not this world during a time marked by dissension, distrust and violence, the latter in word, if not in deed.

So it was, with these words echoing in my mind, that I came across the headline, which I used for this blog. It appeared over a column in the Washington Post by one of my favorite writers, Michael Gerson.

A former speechwriter for President George Bush, Gerson demonstrates two traits – a solid writing ability, and an acute sense of analysis. And all of this is informed by his Christian convictions.

The word he uses – “advent” — is not necessarily in common usage these days, though its meaning is clear:

Advent is the start of something.

Here is how the dictionary defines the term:

• Coming into place, view, or being; arrival: The advent of the holiday season.
• The coming of Christ into the world – and, specifically, the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.

Gerson makes the point that, even in the face of confounding issues in the U.S. and the world, “advent” fosters a sense of hope because it remembers the day Christ came into the world to develop a way for each of us to have a relationship with Him.

“America’s political culture,” Gerson continues, “is dominated by fear. For some, it is fear that the triumph of progressivism would bring anti-religious persecution and fundamentally alter the American way of life. For others, it is fear that the re-election of President Trump would remove the last restraints on his cruelty, vindictiveness and contempt for the rule of law.

“My anxieties are firmly in the second camp. But the general mood of trepidation is universal. Our greatest political passion seems dedicated not to the pursuit of dreams, but to the avoidance of nightmares.

“This is the time of the Christian year dedicated to expectant longing. God, we are assured, is at mysterious work in the world. Evil and conflict are real, but not ultimate. Grace and deliverance are unrealized, but certain. Patient waiting is rewarded because the trajectory of history is tilted upward by a powerful hand.

“This is the fullest expression of the hope of advent — that all wrongs will finally be righted, that all the scales will eventually balance and that no one will be exploited or afraid. But this hope is not yet fulfilled.

“Poets and theologians have strained for ways to describe this sense of anticipation. It is like a seed in the cold earth. Like the first barely detectable signs of a thaw. Like a child growing in a womb.”

Gerson weaves his words into an incredible picture – a picture of a world marked by hope that God is returning to “establish his kingdom,” which will be marked by no slavery, no oppression and peace.

I choose – yes, it is a choice – to rest in this HOPE. God is returning and, meanwhile, we can have a relationship with Him through what Christ has done for us, a relationship defined very well by the words of O Holy Night.

Truly He taught us to love one another

His law is love and His gospel is peace

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother

And in His name all oppression shall cease

Great emphases and hope for this Christmas season!