The Peace We Long For: Advent in Disorienting Times | Day 19

Finding Peace in the Journey and Restoration

Let’s say it together:  Sometimes this life is just too much! Remember when we begged as kids to be adults and adults told us not wish life away?  Ugh.  LET ME GO BACK!!!

But now, here we are.  As many of us have mentioned in the devotions, the season of Advent meets us in our own times of uncertainty and disorientation.  My last devotion used the letter from Jude to his community.  It was a reminder in a disorienting world. Peace was not certainty or control, but a practice—staying rooted in love, extending mercy, and trusting that we are held even when faith feels fragile. Jude reminded us that confusion is not failure; it is often where grace meets us.

Much like faith, scriptures, devotions, and life, the longer and deeper you go, the wider the invitation gets from the Divine.  Psalm 80 has a repeated phrase that is pivotal for the writer of that time and for us in our most uncertain and disoriented moments, and I want to show two translations:

Psalm 80:3, 7, 19 NIV Restore us, O God;     make your face shine on us,     that we may be saved.

Psalm 80:3, 7, 19 The Message God, come back! Smile your blessing smile:     That will be our salvation.

I wonder which translation you relate to?  Are you the person who is looking for parts of your life to be rebuilt?  Are you the person who feels abandoned by loved ones, communities, or God? 

Hold this truth today:  at any point in your life and/or your walk of faith, you might feel these ways, and that is okay.  Within Psalm 80, both voices are allowed to exist. In my own confusing, shaken, and stirred times, I have heard both of these voices in my mind, even now.  

That is why this Psalm and many like it are my favorites because there is permission to feel and say (or write) the hardest things and thoughts aloud. 

This psalm teaches us that peace begins with honesty.

Naming what is broken (in ourselves, in our communities, in the world) is not a lack of faith. It is a refusal to settle for less than wholeness.  Feeling abandoned by the Divine is not a turn away from faith.  Moreover, it is a deeper step into the journey of faith and finding a new peace.   Peace is not quiet acceptance of harm; it is the courage to ask for transformation.

Advent does not promise quick answers. It invites us to wait with intention—to pray honestly, love boldly, and trust that restoration is already unfolding among us.

Prayer: Holy Presence, we come to you without easy answers. Our world feels uncertain, our hearts feel stretched, and we do not always know how to name what we are longing for.

Like the psalmist, we cry out for restoration—not because we have lost faith, but because we believe wholeness is still possible. Help us speak honestly about what is broken in our lives, our communities, and our world.

When peace feels fragile, remind us that it is not something we wait for passively, but something we practice daily together—through mercy, courage, and solidarity.

As we wait in this season of Advent, help us trust that light is already breaking through—in quiet acts of compassion, in brave truth-telling, and in the shared work of restoration.

Amen.