Tag: hope

Why My Hope Is In You

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Harrison Wright Falls at Ricketts Glen State Park by Chris Fraley
Harrison Wright Falls at Ricketts Glen State Park by Chris Fraley

The ephemeral existence of man is a theme to which I keep returning these days. From our general perspective, a lifetime seems to go on forever, though that perspective changes over the years.

When I was young, summer days and blue skies seemed to go on forever. Summers seemed to be endless. I could not wait to be older. Old age was a very distant horizon.

As we get older, the pace of life quickens. We fill up our days to overflowing with busyness and activities. We are constant thinking, planning, worrying, distracted, looking forward, stewing over the past, attending to the needs of spouses and children and clients and customers and neighbors and co-workers and … we hardly notice how time passes. Continue reading “Why My Hope Is In You” →

Christmas Thoughts

The incongruity of the festive, popular trappings and the dark, lonely struggles makes this time of year especially difficult for many people.

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This time of year is a joyful, festive time of year filled with family time, days off from work, presents given and received and celebration. At least, that is how this time of year is billed to be; and I often it is, for most of us, for the most part, a joyful time of year. But, life does not live up to the billing or expectations.

I checked Facebook this morning when I awoke. A high school classmate reports that his wife, mother of his daughters, went to “be with the angels” last night. A friend I met in college said goodbye to his mother yesterday, and she is no longer with us today. An acquaintance I know through wrestling described a colleague, only a few months past 50, who passed yesterday. Another high school friend asked for prayers for his daughter, going on two weeks in the hospital. Another friend from high school started chemo again this week.

These are only a few examples of the people I know who are struggling with loss, sickness and other difficulties right now. I am painfully aware that this joyful time of year is anything but happy for people dealing with financial difficulties, health problems and other struggles.

The incongruity of the festive, popular trappings and the dark, lonely struggles makes this time of year especially difficult for many people.

In quiet reflection, we know that the reason for celebration is not in the popular trappings. We celebrate the birth of Christ and the hope He brings.

Implicit in the story of God shedding his omnipresence and exchanging an eternal, omnipotent position for the humble circumstance of a dependent, newborn baby is that God is not unaware or unable to identify with us in our humanity and our struggles. He is not unaccustomed to our suffering.

Jesus Christ became Emmanuel, God with us, as foretold many centuries before. He lived as we live and suffered as we suffer. Jesus felt the weight of depression and the sorrow of loss. He intimately knows our struggles.

As we consider and celebrate the birth of Christ this time of year, we should focus our attention on the context and the purpose for which He was born – to bear in Himself the sin of mankind, to carry that burden to the cross, to die and to bury the sin he carried; and to rise, conquering both sin and death.

The hope that Jesus gives us is not the promise of no suffering, but the promise of redemption and new life on the other side of the suffering.

We have a God who is not distant. He, even is now, poised at the door to each of our hearts. He is still Emmanuel – God with us. He is also now God in us – if we are willing to receive Him. I pray that you would open the door to Him today and receive the hope He has to give.

Though life is often marked by loss, sorrow and suffering, we have hope. I wish and pray for God to fill each person this Christmas Season with that hope and, with it, peace and comfort and, yes, even joy.

In the midst of the difficulties and struggles, we can have joy. Our hope is not in the things of this world. Our hope is anchored in something deeper and more substantial.

In that vein, have a Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Belief in God is not Blind Faith; Encounters with God

Faith is not blind or irrational. It is evidence based, but it does take some risk to act in hope and confidence on the evidence.

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Ryan Sun

Paul said that he is not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16) Belief (faith), therefore, is obviously central to spiritual life in Christ.

What is meant by faith, though? Is faith “blind”, as some describe it? Is faith is antithetical to science? Does science discount faith? Does faith require the suspension of intellect? Does faith require us to abandon obvious evidence to the contrary?

I have not found any of these things to be the case. Faith does require a “leap”, but faith is not like jumping out over a yawning chasm. The gap is much shorter, and the landing is much more sure than one might suppose.

Continue reading “Belief in God is not Blind Faith; Encounters with God” →

It is Not so Hard to Imagine

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I have been learning how to use HootSuite this weekend. The HootSuite technology allows a person to leverage one’s finite time in a way that one can communicate in almost real time with a vast number of people. It is a website for tracking and posting to an almost unlimited number of social media sites and groupings within sites at one time. In one stroke of the keyboard, a person can tweet, post on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, MySpace, Foursquare, WordPress, Mixi and within those social media sites on specific groups and pages, potentially reaching thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people simultaneously. At the same time a person can almost simultaneously follow and respond to dozens and even hundreds of other people posting things in the same social media sites and groups. It is pretty remarkable.

Technology brings to us what was only dreamed about a few years ago and what might never have been imagined just a couple of generations ago. As we become more self-sufficient than ever as beings, the tendency is to become less reliant on faith and God. One thing technology has not changed is the certainty of death. We are also still beings. This world is bigger than us, and we do not ultimately control our own fate…. but that is another topic for another day.

It occurred to me as I learned my way around HootSuite this weekend, that God’s ability to have an individual relationship with each and every person is not such a farfetched concept. If one finite person can simultaneously communicate with hundreds and thousands of people, it is not hard to imagine that God, who is infinite, can communicate with each one of us on an intimate, personal level.

It is written that God knows every hair on your head. (Luke 12:7) Even more than that, the Psalmist says that God knows your comings and goings and the very thoughts in your head! (Psalm 139) God knows when you get up and lie down. There is nowhere a person can go that God is not there and is not aware of what a person does. It really is not so hard to imagine that God can do that in light of the ability that we have at our fingertips. God knows you