Hope

Everybody is the same. Whether they're fat or skinny. Whether they're rich or poor. Whether they've slept with 50 people or they haven't even dated one. Whether they know how to cook, sew, fish, or cut hair. Or whether they have NO creativity-- or haven't been taught to exercise it into something useful...something productive. Sure. Our life experiences shape us. Its beyond our control. Experiences teach us who to trust, who to spend our time with, how to act around people, and they may even "tell" us who we are. Or they try to. And many times we believe it. But we are all feeling the same feelings. We fear the same things. We all have similar insecurities, and we're all climbing mountains and falling into the darkest and deepest valleys. I just wish our valleys were connected. Then maybe WE could be connected. But we're all in isolated valleys, in some way or another. Sometimes we are just emerging from them so we're going uphill and we're happy. Sometimes we're still falling. And sometimes we're at the pit, where everything is the darkest, hoping that someday SOON the sun will emerge from the clouds and give light to all things hidden in darkness. The cuts and wounds that just need oxygen in order to heal again. Will we ever be WHOLE again? We wonder.

It is then that we remember Job. Who found HOPE when there was none. Who stated in Job 13:15, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." I don't understand how one trusts another when they've destroyed them. But God is different. God is not human. God does not do things for no reason. God does not confuse what is right with selfish human desires. But who knows the mind of the LORD? His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9) God can't NOT be faithful. Can we have complete hope, faith, and trust in something completely unseen when not a single thing in this world will reassure us? Is it even possible to love God without even a little reassurance from this world that God is FOR us and not against us? People are just people. But God is just God. If the Bible is true, this God is longing for us. He's metaphorically AND literally dying to be closer to us. Should we let Him in? Why should we? Is it risky? Is it a big commitment? Because He's threatening our eternity? He wants to offer us grace. What even IS grace? If the Bible is true, this God is a GOOD god. He's FOR us. He wants the best for us in ALL things. And he's absolutely and completely defensive over us and our hearts. We WIN with him on our side! (Romans 8) But this world... this world is NOT for us. In fact, the ruler of this world wants only to steal from us, kill, and destroy us. Its a bummer we have to constantly live in a place where a lion is always prowling around, just WAITING to destroy us (1 Peter 5:8). But God is a god of HOPE. Maybe we DO need him around. I mean, can we really go on without hope anyway?

"Hope is strength to walk along,
And music to my song,
I'll be redeemed." -Alli Rogers "Hope"