60 Seconds of Hope with Horace McMillon

Send us Fan Mail We Shall Build Again (Advent 22) “They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” -Isaiah 61:4 Anyone who has experienced heartbreaking disappointment or devastating loss, anyone who has been knocked down, knows how difficult it is to get back up and start over.  Some of...

Send us Fan Mail The Magnificat: Celebrating the Vision  (Advent 21) “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.” -Luke 1:46-48 These verses are from Mary’s celebration. She had just embraced a mission and a calling for her life. The Angel had proposed...

Send us Fan Mail Choose Trust - (Advent 20) “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24 Most of the time, we do not know the how, when, or where. We don’t know how we are going to get through. We don’t know when we are going to get through. We don’t know where we will be when we finally make it to the other side.  This reality of uncertainty is discouraging, diso...

Send us Fan Mail Always Be Grateful (Advent 19) “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Mr. Campbell had just come out of a very serious medical procedure that had left him paralyzed on half of his body. His prospects for recovery were uncertain.  When asked how he was doing, rather tha...

Send us Fan Mail Cry, but Don’t Stop Sowing (Advent 18) “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.” - Psalm 126:5-6 Heartbreak and disappointment come into every life. Sorrow and despair are part of the human experience. There’s no need to pretend that we feel ok when we are...

Send us Fan Mail Be Comfortable Being Who You Are (Advent 17) “This is the testimony given by John when they asked him, "Who are you?"… He confessed, "I am not the Messiah." -from John 1:19-20 John the Baptist was an extraordinary person. About him, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 1...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus Skipped the Revenge and We Should Too (Advent 16) Jesus began his public ministry by opening the scroll to Isaiah 61 and reading these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year o...

Send us Fan Mail “Test everything; hold fast to what is good.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Some of the old timers used to say, ‘Eat the meat. Spit out the bones. We all have a lot of people in our ears offering us advice.  Not everyone who gives us advice means us well. Not everyone who means us well gives us good advice. We are responsible to discern.  First, we consider if the words are true. Next, w...

Send us Fan Mail Strong Enough To Be Gentle (Advent 14) Many of us confuse being strong with being hard. So we act hard to project our own strength and power.  Some of us are afraid of showing tenderness, or kindness, or compassion. We afraid that our gentleness will be taken for weakness. So we pretend.  This kind of fake toughness is born of fear. Fear is not consistent with trusting that our li...

Send us Fan Mail Don’t celebrate people getting the bad they deserve. (Advent 13) “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem” - from Isaiah 40:1-2 The people of Jerusalem were in a very bad situation. Worse, they, themselves were largely responsible for the hardship they were enduring. Their own actions had led to these horrible consequences.  Notice how much differe...

Send us Fan Mail Sharing God’s Love through Justice and Decency. (Advent 12) “Righteousness will go before him and will make a path for his steps.” - Psalm 85:13 It’s hard for folk experiencing neglect and abuse to feel God’s love. It’s hard to feel hopeful and optimistic about one’s future when one is being dishonored, and disrespected, when one’ humanity is denied or diminished.  If we want peop...

Send us Fan Mail Prepare the Way for Others (Advent 11) “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight…” - from Mark 1:3 (quoting Isaiah 40:3) The ‘Kingdom of God’ describes a way of experiencing and living in the world that leads to shalom.  Shalom is a type of peace and wellbeing that can be experienced both individually and collectively.  In other words, the concept of the ‘Kingdom of Go...

Send us Fan Mail How to get and stay on P.O.I.N.T.  (Advent 10) In order to become the kind of people we believe we should, we have to be intentional in reacting to stimuli. We have to stop being reactionary and get on P.O.I.N.T. Pause: In the world of broadcasting, they often have a seven second delay, in order for them to “dump” or eliminate anything from going out over the air that should not. ...

Send us Fan Mail What Kind of People Should We Be? (Advent 9) “What sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?” -from 1 Peter 3:11 & 12. What kind of people should we be while we are waiting for and working towards a better future? What kind of person should I be while I am waiting and working towards a be...

Send us Fan Mail When Justice and Peace Come Together (Advent 8) “Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.” Psalm 85:10 We don’t have to look very far to find examples of injustice and inequality. We don’t have to search very far to see exploitation and abuse or to see heartbreaking suffering.  The season of Advent is a time when we remind ourselves...

Send us Fan Mail Stop Beating Yourself Up  (Advent 7) “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid…” from Isaiah 40:1-2 At some point we have to stop beating ourselves up for our past mistakes and misdeeds. At some point we have to stop beating others up for their past mistakes and misdeeds.  Some o...

Send us Fan Mail Strength to Finish the Job (Advent 6) “He will also strengthen you to the end…” -from 1 Corinthians 1:8 None of this is easy. We encounter all kinds of obstacles and difficulties along the way when we decide to change, when we decide to do better and be better, when we decide to make a positive contribution.  There will be times when we get tired, when we get discouraged, when we...

Send us Fan Mail Christ is Coming Today (Advent 5) “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” Mark 13:30 Mark 13:24-37 is a passage many Christians associate with the second coming of Christ. Verse 30 unlocks the meaning of the passage. It declares that very generation hearing these words will see them come to pass.  Rather than thinking of Chri...

Send us Fan Mail When God Seems Absent, Call Anyway. (Advent 4) “There is no one who calls on your name or attempts to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.” - Isaiah 64:7 There are times when God seems a long way away or absent altogether. Human cruelty and indifference, violence and injustice, callous neglect, fear and hate…...

Send us Fan Mail We Can Grow and Change (Advent 3) “We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” - from Isaiah 64:8 Honest assessment of our individual and collective faults and shortcomings is an essential component of our growth.  The writer of Isaiah a few verses earlier in the text pointed out that, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteou...

Send us Fan Mail We Are Called into Partnership with Christ (Advent 2) “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” - 1 Corinthians 1:9 Advent is about embracing an alternative vision to the way things are in this world. We have been called to participate in the work of bringing this vision to life. We trust that God is faithful and will enable...

Send us Fan Mail Something’s Got to Change “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!” - Isaiah 64:1 Many Christian traditions around the world take four weeks every year to remember and celebrate a season called Advent. The scriptures associated with Advent are broken down into three four week groups and rotated through every three years. Over...

Send us Fan Mail Overcoming Ourselves is the Greatest Gift “Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.” - Francis of Assisi The day we stop worrying about what other people are doing and not, the day we focus on ourselves, our thinking, our habits, our behaviors, our actions and reactions- is the first day of our liberation. It’s the first day of...

Send us Fan Mail Forget Work Life Balance  In today’s bonus reflection, I want to challenge the whole notion of work life balance.  The whole notion presupposes that there is a bucket of time called work, and some other bucket of time called life. The reality is that we only have one life.  For those of us who work full time outside the home, we spend more waking hours with our coworkers and custo...

Send us Fan Mail Count Your Own Blessings- Not Someone Else’s  “So they hung Haman on the pole that he had prepared for Mordecai…”  from Ester 7:10 For those not familiar with the story, Haman had a fabulous life. He was the top assistant to the King of Persia. Persia at the time was the most magnificent empire on earth.  Haman had the power and privilege of his position. He has access to the land...