Category: Hope

My dad insisted on putting the broken pieces together again. The broken gnome was just a $1.00 flea market find; it wasn’t a big deal at all. Yet my dad insisted on taking it home to fix.

About a month ago, as company was leaving, I noticed that one of my gnomes was shattered and lying on my top step. The whole incident actually prompted my May 14th blog post titled, “He Knows Your Need Before You Ask.”

Honestly, I thought the broken gnome was beyond repair. So, I was genuinely surprised when my dad recently returned it to me in really great shape. It does have a few noticeable “scars” and it will never be quite the same. However, it is good enough to join my new gnome outside in my little flower bed.

I still can’t believe that my dad was able to put the pieces together again. When I look at the repaired gnome, I picture my dad patiently and lovingly restoring the happy little garden statue and am reminded of the way my heavenly father patiently and lovingly restores my broken life.

Like the gnome, I too am a broken piece of work. I have fallen on multiple occasions, and there have been times when I felt like the broken pieces could never be repaired. But I have a Daddy in heaven who knows exactly how to put me back together again.

Sure, I too have noticeable scars, and due to certain experiences that I have been through, I will never be quite the same. However, when my Daddy works on me, he strengthens me where I am weak. He replaces the hurt with comfort and peace. He reminds me of who I am in Christ and that my purpose is in him.

God doesn’t promise us a trouble-free life. As long as we are in this world, we will face trials and temptation. There is a great spiritual battle around us, and our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), but greater is the One living inside of me than he who is living in the world (1 John 4:4).

When we keep our eyes on Jesus, he leads us through our struggles and brings us through to victory. Yet when we lose our focus and fall, we need only look up to a God who is waiting to scoop us up into his hands and restore what is broken. Like my earthly dad who can fix my broken gnome so it can stand guard again in my flower bed, my heavenly Father patiently and lovingly restores me so that I can be used again for his glory.

As for the scars that remind me of my fall, they also remind me of God’s love, forgiveness, mercy, grace and restoration. They remind me of where I’ve been, and as I move forward, God gives me opportunities to share the meaning of those scars with my brothers and sisters who fall into Satan’s trap as well. Yes, I have an amazing daddy here on earth, and I have an even more amazing Daddy in heaven who is able to put my broken pieces back together again.

Can you see hope? Last Monday, 27 days after the first day of spring, I glanced out my window and saw really big snowflakes. The snow started coming down so hard that I could barely see flowers on the trees. And then I noticed something even crazier, an icicle in the middle of April! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was there any hope?

Thankfully, the bright purple azaleas a few feet past the icicle snapped me back to my senses. Summer was surely on its way; winter would surely end.

I started this winter out strong, believing I could handle it. I purchased some cute winter outfits and armed myself with my pink coat, electric blanket, sidewalk salt and window de-icer.

I did pretty well for the first couple of months, but by the middle of February, I had to fight harder. I brought in the coconut scented lotion, indulged in tropical fruit, sat bright colored flowers in my window sill and melted wax cubes that smelled like an ocean breeze.

I fought with all I had, but the day came when I felt like I could take no more. I didn’t want to wear multiple layers of clothes. I didn’t want to go outside. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to do ANYTHING. Winter was lasting a really long time, and I started longing for the sunshine more than ever.

The day finally came when I could go outside without a heavy coat! However, the next day was bitter cold again. The back and forth cycle began. The sunshine burst through one day, but clouds drifted back the next. A dandelion popped up but was followed by frost. The daffodils bloomed, but then snow covered them up.

Sandals, boots, hope, despair…. That’s the battle that winter brings. I can get caught up dwelling on the cold and dreary weather or I can keep my thoughts on what lies ahead. I can fix my eyes on the icicles, or I can focus on the azaleas in the distance.

Isn’t that how life is? Things are going great, and then we hit difficult season. Life gets better, but then more trials develop. Life can become an emotional roller coaster as we transition through its seasons.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a burdensome season that just won’t go away. Problem after problem arises, and the load gets harder and harder to bear. We might even encounter a season that we know is only going to get worse until our life on earth is over.

In these seasons of distress and despair, we have a choice. We can either give in to hopelessness or we can search for hope and hold on to the end.

“How can you have hope when one thing keeps happening after the next?” or “How can you have hope if you know this pain will continue until you die?” you might ask. Let me tell you about the hope I possess. I have been through some extremely difficult seasons. In fact, my life right now is not trouble-free, and I am certain that I have seasons in my future that will be even more difficult than anything I have encountered to this day. Yet whatever lies ahead, I will continue to do what I have been doing thus far.

Instead of being swallowed up by despair and grief, I will put on the full armor of God so I can stand against the devil’s schemes. I will fight with the word of God and prayer. I will seek the Lord with all my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength. For whatever I must walk through, I know that God will walk through it with me.

Whatever pain I endure whether physical, mental or emotional, I will remember that I am more than flesh and bones. I am a soul who has entrusted my life to the One who created my inmost being. I will hold on to the hope that no matter what trouble lies ahead, something far greater than I could ever imagine is off in the distance.

Someday, when my heart stops beating and I take my last breath, my God will take me home with him, where there will be no more mourning or crying or pain. I will be made perfectly whole and will spend eternity with a loving, holy, perfect God in a perfect place.

So, my question to you is this, “Can you see hope? Can you see past the struggles that you are facing and the difficult days that lie ahead?” This hope I speak of is found in only one place. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to Father except through him. Our sin has separated us from God, but Jesus paid the price for all of our sins. Do you know Jesus, and have you entrusted your life to him?  God wants each of us to accept this gift of forgiveness and return to him. Ask God to forgive you for going your way instead of his. He will wash you clean with the blood of Jesus, fill you with the Holy Spirit and transform you to be more like him. Lay down your life today and start living for him. He will fill you with peace and hope that lasts for an eternity.

My friend, Shelly, texted me, “Are you up to going to the concert?” She had invited me to attend as her guest several weeks before. I love Casting Crowns and had been to 2 or 3 of their concerts, but I wasn’t sure if I still wanted to go. I hadn’t been feeling well physically, my mind was on overload and my heart was burdened over other people’s suffering. I was overwhelmed because of being really busy both at work and home. I was really longing for a day to just stay at home and go nowhere.

To make matters worse, I felt bad for snapping at my family that afternoon. My husband simply asked me what I thought we’d have for dinner that night, but because I was so worn down from too much working and not enough resting (still no excuse), I snapped. I started listing off all of the things that I needed to take care of, how I couldn’t do it all and how exhausted I was…again. I felt terrible. He & my family didn’t deserve the angry rant that proceeded out of my mouth.

So, no. I really didn’t feel like going to worship with my friend. On top of wanting to stay at home and rest, I figured I’d see a lot of people I knew from our church and community. I didn’t want anyone to see me in the mood I was in, and I wasn’t sure if I could “put on the face” to hide how I felt inside. Yet deep down, I knew I needed to go. So, I went.

We entered the doors to the building and before we even reached the auditorium, I talked to or waved back to at least a dozen people I knew. Inside the auditorium, I passed another dozen on the way to my seat. They were in front of me, behind me and down my row. I tried not to think of them. I tried not to wonder if they could see through me. I sat still for the first time in a long time and tried to hold it together while longing for God to reach down and fix my attitude and brokenness.

The concert soon began. Through the words that were sung, I was reminded of God’s truth, love, faithfulness and awesomeness. Shifting my focus from myself to God, I was drawn into worship. It was me and God in a crowded room.

Although the Casting Crowns concert was a wonderful experience, the opening band, “I Am They,” was even more uplifting to me. I listened as they each shared their testimony. The band talked about their pasts with broken homes, divorces, drug addictions and pornography and how their lives were changed when they encountered Christ. They each had their struggle, yet God delivered them all, and there they stood on the stage right in front of me.

As a pastoral care associate and high school youth leader, I had walked in that night carrying a burden for lives that shared similar struggles. I had been listening to, loving on and praying for so many people caught in vicious cycles of struggle, addiction and depression. I had shared God’s love and pointed them to hope in him, but I was getting a bit discouraged as I watched some who were fading away yet again.

Listening to each story, I saw not only the band members’ faces, but the faces of the people I was burdened for. To hear them share how God had totally transformed their lives when they had been so lost, my hope inside that was dwindling grew stronger again. If God could heal that divorced woman, free that heroin addict and break the chains for that man caught in pornography, there was still hope for the ones I know who seemed to be drifting once more. “Keep listening, keep loving, keep praying, keep the hope,” a quiet voice inside encouraged.

The most meaningful part of the evening was when “I Am They” said that they had arrived early to pray over each of the chairs. When they told us that, I pretty much lost it. When someone takes the time to pray over the chairs, it is because their heart longs for the person who will sit there to be touched by God in the way they need his touch. I remembered the times that I had been the one to pray over the chairs, but this time, someone had actually prayed over the chairs for me! I hoped that no one could see as I wiped my tears.

I love to listen, to pray, to speak words of truth, to love and to minister by helping people find hope in Jesus. But I had walked into that building that night with a tired body, a worn out mind and a troubled soul. To hear that someone had prayed over my chair was like a hug from God. I needed that. To be ministered to by someone who didn’t even know me was a reminder to me that God is watching and listening, ready to reach down at just the right moment.

I love Casting Crowns, but I wouldn’t have been at that concert that night if my friend hadn’t offered me a ticket. I almost didn’t go, but I felt the need. I walked in worn down and walked out rejuvenated. God met me there in the crowd at a sold-out concert that I wasn’t sure I wanted to attend. It was a gift from my friend and a gift from my Daddy at just the right time. He always knows what I need.

Today is Monday, and the first thing I will do when I get to work is go through the prayer requests. Over the 10 years that I have worked in a church, our prayer team has prayed for thousands of requests. Every request is important because each one is a burden being carried by someone who no longer wishes to carry it alone.

We have a trustworthy group of prayer warriors who are committed to keep these requests confidential between God, themselves and the person who submitted the request. We are honored to be trusted with these deeply personal requests and have been blessed by seeing God do some pretty amazing things. Women who “can’t have children” have conceived and given birth. Children have been adopted. Addictions have been broken. Jobs have been obtained. Patients who were given no hope have lived beyond the doctor’s prognosis. Doctors have contributed unexplained healing to prayer. Loved ones who have been covered in prayer sometimes for many years, have given their lives to Christ. God has been praised for many, many prayers that were answered in the way we desired.

However, not every prayer we have prayed has been answered in the way we have asked. Though our hearts break as we pray along with those who live with chronic physical pain, suffer mental anguish, deal with hardships and experience tragedy, God doesn’t always choose to end the struggle.

The unbelieving world sometimes looks at our “unanswered prayers” and our tragedies and asks us “Where is this God you talk about?” or “If there is a God, why does he let these terrible things happen?” Even Christians sometimes have a hard time understanding how God can allow a child to have cancer, a Godly man to die unexpectedly, parents of young children to die in a car crash, hurricanes to destroy homes or shooters to go on rampages that take lives.

I have seen many arguments on social media concerning these matters. I have seen many explanations that make sense to me but no sense at all to others. However, I’m not even going to begin to explain what I believe the “why” to these situations are.

What I do know and believe is that God is our Creator. He loved the world so much that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus is Lord and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is God; I am not. God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours. In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

In John 17, as Jesus prepared for his death on the cross to pay the price for our sin, he prayed to the Father. He prayed not only for those who belonged to him but for his future followers as well. In verse 15, he prayed, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”

In Acts chapters 6 and 7, Stephen was arrested and stoned for his faith in Jesus. God didn’t stop the people from throwing the stones, but he did allow Stephen to see the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

God doesn’t always remove our struggles or suffering, but he promises to go through it with us. Over and over, I have witnessed other Christians holding on to God through their difficulties and testifying to the fact that he is giving them strength, comfort and peace to endure. His supernatural power provides what we need while we wait for the day that we will see complete healing, an end to suffering and an end to sorrow.

We believe Jesus words in John 16:33 when he says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” We believe John’s word’s in John 1:5 (NLT) that say, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” We take seriously the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 when he tells us, “You are the light of the world” and commands us to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

It is not always clear to us why God allows bad things to happen, but those of us who belong to him know that he will always be with us, that his Holy Spirit dwells in us to bring us strength, comfort and peace and that we have hope that one day, we will live with him, eternally in heaven where there will be no evil and no more pain, suffering or tears. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

Our New Year’s Eve company had left, and I went to bed shortly after ringing in the New Year. As I reflected on all of the blessings I had received in 2017, my thoughts started shifting to what might lie ahead in 2018.

With the busyness of the holidays coming to an end, I was ready to clean up the mess, get into a new rhythm and start fresh again. A lot of great ideas about new projects had recently come to mind, and I needed to figure out how to fit those in. I also needed to do a little heart check to see what changes God might want me to make in my life as I continue my journey with him. As eager and excited as I was to get started on a plan of action, I knew that my body needed rest. I quickly slipped into deep and peaceful sleep.

I awoke to my oldest son asking two questions. “Can I borrow your car keys?” and “How can water be rushing out of the middle of the road?” Now, I am one of those people who are pretty slow to rise in the morning. You know, the kind that can hit the snooze button every 10 minutes for an hour and quickly fall back asleep in between. When I finally coax my feet down to the floor, I seem to wander around doing who knows what and am not ready to converse with anyone until I’ve had at least a half a pot of coffee and a pretty long pep talk from God.

However, the thought of water rushing out of the middle of the street caused me to jump out of bed lightning fast and bolt into action. Outside my bedroom window, I could see the water gushing, some sort of digging truck and a big dump truck; I knew my water supply was going to be cut off shortly. That’s when it all became “every Princess for herself!” Don’t mind that besides my husband who jumped out of bed as well, there were three sleeping children in the house who had no clue of the ensuing inconvenience.

What do I need? “Bathroom! No. Coffee!” I quickly started the coffee and ran to the bathroom to start filling the tub. I was for a brief moment nice enough to urge my husband to go shower in the boys’ bathroom upstairs, before I also started filling pitchers, pots and the kitchen sink with water and making all the necessary preparations that were routine for times when I had the luxury of knowing the water supply would be shut off.

My husband was already finished with his shower when I had finished filling everything I could think of on the main level of the house. When I found out he hadn’t filled the upstairs tub after showering, I commanded he go “Do it now!” This was a state of emergency for a Princess like me!

He reluctantly went upstairs only to find that the water had already been shut off…. We had one tub of water for flushing, and I had not yet had my royal bath. When my husband, whose shower was on the chilly side, saw the full tub of water I had drawn, he questioned if I had run the tub full of hot water rather than cold. I replied that it was “warm” since I had been planning to bathe. I felt a tad guilty inside because it was warmer than “warm,” but Princesses really cannot tolerate cold water, even on the warmest days, which this sub-zero morning was not, and it truly wasn’t as hot as I normally deemed necessary.

With one tub of water, and the water off, a decision had to be made. Do I use the clean water for hand-washing and flushing or do I take my “warm” bath. Of course, I did what any Princess would do…. I decided to take my bath and use the dirty bath water for flushing. Clean water would eventually cycle through.

When I emerged from my morning pampering for another hot cup of coffee, I was greeted by the sad eyes of my daughter who asked if the water had been shut off. Next in line was my son who had to be at work in less than two hours.

I looked out the window again. It appeared that the job would still be taking quite a long time. My husband’s estimate was another four hours. Again, I felt I had been a “tiny bit” selfish to have put myself first but at the same time, I was thankful that I was not in their predicament.

I did find a place for them to shower, my son did make it to work on time, the last child in the house slept like a baby until the work outside was completed, and clean water did eventually cycle through the “royal throne.” However, as the “state of emergency” came to an end, this Princess started to feel more than a “tiny bit” of shame.

I would like to twist the truth about my motivation for action in this story around and say that I was doing the selfless, responsible thing by getting myself cleaned up first so that I could drive my other family members to a destination to shower. However, that is not the case. The real story is that when I saw what was happening outside my window, the only thing that I was thinking of was the Princess. I didn’t check the calendar to see if anyone needed to go to work. I didn’t think about the chilly water temperature that my husband might be experiencing as I drew my “warm” bath. My first thoughts weren’t even about the poor men outside my window who had to get up early on New Year’s Day to endure freezing temperatures to fix the water leak and ensure that I could have clean, running water. Nope. Everything I did when I got up was for me, the Princess.

Even though it all worked out, I realized that one thing I need to work on this year is becoming the princess that God wants me to be. I really am a princess; I belong to a royal family. I belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace, but rather than act like the spoiled Princess who seems to surface when there is a “state of emergency,” I am called to something different. I’m called to live the life described in Philippians 2:5-11….

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (NLT)

Since my New Year’s Day didn’t start out quite the way I had planned, and since my whole morning was “dedicated” to “managing my kingdom in the state of emergency that had ensued,” I didn’t really have time to figure out my “plan of action for 2018.” So, I will be working on that more with God this week. One thing I do know has to happen in that plan is that I need to become the kind of princess that the King of Kings called me to be. The wonderful news is that I will not have to figure that out all by myself. I will continue into 2018 clinging to the promise that the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6 (NLT),

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.