It’s been a few days… time off for a couple of hard lessons. I know, I know… “sheesh, is she gonna do another downer of a post?” Well… no. I’m not gonna make it a downer of a post. This is a hope post… the kind where you’re hiking through a dark woods and suddenly you come to a clearing. Sun is shining, a cool breeze blows and you see how far you’ve come... but wait, I’m not done! Shimmering on the far horizon, you see your destination. You see your path. You don’t know what you’ll encounter on the way, but you see there is a way. Hope.
It was a rough week up until my hope moment. I get small when things get rough. I think small, I dream small, I nibble at the day until I’ve simply chewed it all away. I felt very un-heroic last week… very hurt. Hurt by someone I once trusted. And when you let hurt become your reality then it’s game over. But then…
I came out of the woods. Denny and I left our 4 bruised little walls and went to a party. There is nothing like laughter and healthy companionship to snap the chains of self-absorption. But that’s not the hope moment. That moment came as a result of the party. We were invited to church… and the bulletin may as well have said, “Hi Sandy and Denny – this service is for you.” The songs, the prayers said for us, the words spoken over us were… Hope. And Life. And a big old Daddy hug from God. It was a glimmer, a shimmering dancing vision of the journey ahead. And it was good.
Thank you Daddy – I needed that…
Abba is so good to us....For several years my "favorite" verse is Romans 15.13, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." My acronym for the word is He Oversees People & Events. Just read this, encouraged me, perhaps thee:
ReplyDelete"The amount which you understand the gospel is measured by your ability to be joyful in all circumstances. If you grasp what a treasure the presence and acceptance of God are, then even when life goes really wrong you will have a joy that sustains you, because you’ll recognize the value of what you have in Him. When life punches you in the face, you’ll say, ‘But I still have the love and acceptance of God, a treasure I don’t deserve.’ And the joy you find in that treasure can make you rejoice even when you have a bloody nose. You have a joy that death and depravation cannot touch.
— J. D. Greear