December 6
Isaiah 9:6-7
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
A Reminder of Hope
by Sarah Walden, Ph.D.
Isaiah 9 speaks of a time of war, distress and suffering, and promises a future–however distant–of peace and joy that will accompany the arrival of the Messiah. Every Christmas season, we celebrate the fulfillment of this prophecy. Yet I am consistently struck by the distance between the world in which this promise was made and the world that saw it realized. At the fear and doubt that comes with waiting on the unknown. After all, hope is not found in the fulfillment of a promise. Hope is found in the distance between the present and the future, in the discomfort of doubt and the trepidation of wonder. The first verse celebrates everything we believe Jesus will become. But behind those words is the unknown: How? When?
Since I began my career at Baylor nearly 15 years ago, I have taught almost entirely first-year students. This is my favorite part of my job. I am honored to be one of the first people my students meet when they begin their academic careers at Baylor, and I do not take this responsibility lightly. The first-year experience is both exhilarating and terrifying, and to understand what our students are going through, we must be willing to enter into a space we spend most of our academic careers avoiding: a space in which we have only a promise of the future but no clear sense of the path we must take to get there.
Who is more full of excitement, fear, wonder, and hope than first-year college students? Their worlds are changing in ways that we can barely imagine. They have no idea what is going to happen, but they believe and persevere through every new experience. They want to have the answers but are only met with more questions and more perceived failures. And despite this, they remain a group of people who are resolutely and passionately open to the excitement and joy of the unknown.
That’s hope. Hope rejoices but also makes room for fear. It is a form of wonder that allows the unknown not to overtake us but to drive us forward and inspire us. I am so grateful to teach first-year students at Baylor because I get to live a life of wonder through their eyes. They remind me of my own humanity and allow me to celebrate my faith in its truest form. Hope allows them to believe the answers will come despite not having them right now. It allows them to put one foot in front of the other, to seek deep connections, to fiercely support each other and bear the weight of one another’s struggles, to believe in better things to come and work to make them a reality. I pray that we all will celebrate the Christmas season with the spirit of hope that we learn from our first-year students.
About the Author
Sarah Walden, Ph.D.
Sarah Walden, Ph.D., serves Baylor University as the associate director of the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core within the Honors College and as an associate professor of Rhetoric since 2011. She is the author of Tasteful Domesticity: Women's Rhetoric and the American Cookbook, 1790-1940, which was published in 2018 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. She is currently researching maternal rhetoric on social media, in particular rhetorics of failure, self-care, and professionalism. She also enjoys her time with her husband, Dan, her son, Liam, and she continues to pursue her passion for cooking and yoga.