Jan. 16, 2007
Umbrella Anyone?
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The song that I just posted "Praise You in This Storm" has come to be a song that I treasure lately. There's just something about music that is comforting....especially when it's themes ring so true in our lives. Our life group just started a study on James. I've done studies on James before...very indepth ones in fact, but....those weren't especially stormy times in my life. James doesn't leave anything to question when he says "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (v. 1-3) Pure joy, you say, James? Sometimes it feels more like diluted joy than it does pure joy. I've been thinking lately about joy and one word keeps coming to mind - hope. I suspect that hope has a lot to do with joy. I don't think that God is asking us to wear a mask - to pretend that we aren't hurting. But, what I do think is that the reason that we can smile through the pain; the reason that we can laugh and find happiness in life in the midst of trials - is because our hope is deeply set in something - rather Someone - Who is all that we need; who is capable of doing above and beyond all that we can ask or think. What is joy without hope? Does it exist? More and more I feel that joy and hope are synonymous. Our joy is rooted in our hope. Our hope isn't wrapped up in the world...it isn't measured by victory over trials. We have this precious gift called hope that assures us that, regardless of our experiences in this life Jesus' sacrifice affords us the hope of another life...one without sin or pain. We have confidence that there is always One who is witness to every life experience. He is the hope that allows us to continue to press on when, even the next breath seems daunting. We know that He is at work and that His good will and pleasure will be carried out. We are confident that the world cannot compete with His plan; it just isn't sufficient outside of God's influence....He is the puppet Master. I suppose that we are at the peak of the storm and that, hopefully, (there's that word...hope) we'll find that downhill path soon. Feels like we're still very much in an uphill battle though. There isn't time or words to offer detail enough to give but a small glimpse of the struggle we're facing. In brief, our neighbor has been at odds with us over a fence that we built 2.5 years ago. She sued us a year and a half ago saying that we didn't have approval from the Home Owner's Association Board to build our fence. We did seek and gain the approval of the HOA to build our fence and have more evidence to that end than we really even need. This week, she won her suit against us in spite of the surmounting evidence that we submitted. It's hard to retain faith in our legal system...but again, I go back to the fact that our faith, our hope, isn't in our legal system. A verse that I stumbled across last year: "Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that man gets justice." Proverbs 29:26. Yes, we'll have to once again "seek an audience with a ruler" (the judge) and ask that our case be reconsidered....but ultimately, it is God who will ensure justice. A Perfect case point of hope. I'm not saying that the pain isn't real - indeed the heart is heavy at this moment. I'm just saying - that we're blessed to know that it isn't over; where there is God there is hope. How, I wonder, do those without God get through the roller coasters of this life? This short passage decribes well where I am at this moment. Jeremiah's response to his representation of Jersulam's pain in Lamentations 3: 19-26 "I remember my afliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." Guess we'll be needing that umbrella longer still as we try to wait quietly for His perfect timing. |