Advent was upon us. I needed it. Advent is my favorite season of the church calendar. The readings are so encouraging. “Look up,” they seem to say, “Live in hope that Christ WILL return and will set things right.” As I just said, I really needed to hear this message. It has not been a good year. At 73, I am feeling my age: aches and pains that make movement difficult, inability to sleep through the night, lapses of memory. And things in the larger world seem more troublesome than normal: renewed conflict in the Middle East, millions of people displaced and on the verge of starvation in Africa, and Putin refusing to pull out of Ukraine. The list could go on. But those are the problems that depress me the most.
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Jim Wildeman
Jim Wildeman is a novelist, short story writer, essayist, and professor emeritus at Covenant College. His work has been published in various places, and he has been nominated for the annual Best American Essay collection. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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