Igniting Hope

That “finality” catches up with us, takes us off guard and stops us in our tracks. Whatever we were meant to be here on earth, whatever we were meant to accomplish, death removes the ultimate dividing line between the “now” and the “not yet.” And while you and I may have journeyed with someone dear to us as they experienced their “not yet” become their “now,” we can not know what our own passing will be like when it finally comes.

When I read the parable of the lost coin in Luke 15, I certainly identify with the old lady’s flipping the house upside down to find her money. I can hear her “fussin’ and cussin’” (as we say in the South) as she looks for what she values. And I can see my Father caring that much about me to find me – my wandering mind, my shame-filled heart – to call me back to Himself even when I try to make my own home with the dust bunnies under the bed.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has...

A scene came into my memory: a boat on the sea, fishermen straining at their nets, another man closely observing it all. Even as a young believer that scene from Luke five captivated my heart – maybe it was because I could so easily identify with Peter’s plea, “Go away from me, Lord; for I am a sinful man.” For years before reading that, I had been keeping Jesus at arm’s length, feeling like my sin always kept me from being good enough.

I love how throughout Scripture, God engaged with His people in the daily-ness of their lives. By the threshing floor, by the well, on the way to Damascus…normal life activities both interrupted and accompanied by the Divine. 

Sometimes it’s not until the hardships and trials of life reveal what we’re really trusting in that we see our true reality. We want others to think well of us, so we put on the brave face, the nice face, the “spiritual” face showing that we’re really standing on sand dunes of bravado, congeniality, and piety. We want others to think we can handle any situation that comes at us, so we never reveal any “chink” in our armor, standing on the sandpit of invincibility.