Why You Can Find Hope, Even in This Place.🌿
Thoughts on finding hope in hard places.
Happy New Year, friends! It's a privilege to have your company here.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick...
Proverbs 13:12
As I write to you, I am feeling the heart sickness of so many hopes that are deferred right now. Our hope of spending time with those we love, our hope of racial justice and equality for women, our hope of moving forward with our dreams and goals. So much we long for is deferred in a global pandemic that has shone a light the broken systems we live with. You don’t need me to tell you about it, you’ve seen and heard enough for yourself to last a lifetime, I imagine.
It’s easy to sink under the weight of all this despair. But I have found that when I’m on my knees, in the mud and the mire, the writer to the Hebrews has come alongside me to offer comfort and strength. I am reminded that in the waiting, in the deferment of what I hope for, I do not wait alone and neither do you. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who come close with words of encouragement and love.
“Hold on,” whispers Sarah, “God is faithful to keep his promises.”
“Cry out,” whispers Hannah, “God will hear your pain.”
“Hang in there,” whispers Ruth, “God will provide what you need.”
“Hold tight,” whispers Esther, “God will make a way.”
“Keep going,” whispers Elizabeth, “you have not been forgotten.”
“Keep trusting,” whispers Mary, “your story is not over yet.”
These women help us to understand that grief and despair can be fertile ground - the very birthplace of the hope we thought was lost. In fact, if hope doesn’t meet us in the place of our deepest wounds, I would argue that it is no hope at all.
The stories of these women do not do us the disservice of offering easy answers or quick fixes. Instead, they cheer us on, reminding us of God’s goodness when we can’t see it for ourselves. They take us by the hand and help us look up again, to Emmanuel, God who is always with us. There are days when that doesn’t seem enough, but even then, we are not left alone to sink under the weight of our sorrow. The Holy Spirit does her best work in the darkness, creating new life, bringing order out of chaos and hope out of despair. She is at work in our world even when we can’t see it or feel it.
So may you know deep inside today, that your story is not over.
May you know that you are loved more deeply than you can imagine.
May you see the inbreaking of God’s kingdom of justice and peace in new and creative ways. May you find brothers and sisters who come alongside to encourage and uplift you in all the ways you need it most. May you find seeds of hope beginning to grow again in the seedbed of your suffering. And above all, may you know the deep comfort and companionship of the Holy Spirit, who loves you without measure and causes you to know goodness and mercy all the days of your life.
Amen.
Reading Recommendations
Always a Guest: speaking of faith far from home, by Barbra Brown Taylor
With her characteristic warmth and depth of thinking, Barbra Brown Taylor offers this collection of sermons she preached at churches that were not her own. As ever, her brilliant thinking, wisdom and insight into scripture are a nourishing feast for the soul. The audio version is particularly good, too.
Treasure in Dark Place, by Liz Carter
This beautiful collection of poetry and fiction is the perfect book for this moment, acknowledging the depths of despair we sometimes feel, while pointing us to hope and showing us the light that appears on the horizon when we can't find it for ourselves. This book is a comfort and a balm for the soul from an author who knows what it's like to find hope in the midst of struggle.
And finally...
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With love and gratitude,
Abby