Tag: hope

Do You Have Tunnel Vision?

For the past month, I’ve had tunnel vision. Metaphorically speaking, I can only focus on a specific thing, and I’m neglecting an eternal perspective. Heartache, hardship takes center stage. I try to zoom out and look around me. Try to look to the heavens where my help comes from. Then a word or image and I’m back…

Walking through a dark narrow tunnel. I wait for the light. You know…the light at the end of the tunnel. Only, there’s not even a glimmer of hope this tunnel ever ends. Dark thoughts consume my mind. I don’t have the mental energy to keep walking, and who knows how long I’m gonna be here.

A frantic thought seizes me. Maybe there is no light.

“It is the bold Christian who can sing God’s sonnets in the darkness.”

C.S. Spurgeon

Heaven forbid! To give up hope in the Living God? To stop walking by faith instead of sight? To cease believing in God’s goodness and His unwavering love for me? To ignore God’s promises and the countless times He’s proven Himself to me?

Nope! Not gonna happen. I’ve come too far to go backwards. If I’m gonna have tunnel vision, let me focus on You, Lord. Not my circumstances or disappointments. But choosing to be still and focus on Jesus is more energy than I can muster. I can’t do this on my own. Not now. Not in this tunnel where the darkness envelopes me.

Then I remember God’s strength is perfected in weakness. I remind myself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). One day at a time!

By His grace, I stand and take a baby step of faith. Trusting God’s heart when I can’t see His face. Even in this … long, dark tunnel.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4,5

Photos: Karen Foster

Are You Sitting in Ashes?

Being depressed is like having a bloodsucking leech embedded in my flesh. Drains me physically. Muddles my mind. Squashes spiritual zeal. I can’t seem to detach the ugly thing. Ever been there?
images-6If you want to get technical, the dictionary defines depression as a psychotic state of mind that entails sadness, despondency, hopelessness, inability to think or concentrate, inactivity, and the desire to sleep. The verb, depress, means to lower.

During the winter months, I often feel like I’ve been lowered into a dark hole. A lack of sun and exercise. Rainy days and long nights. Head colds and flu. These all contribute to a seasonal melancholy state of mind. But experience tells me this too shall pass. I know the Lord will lift me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He’ll set my feet on solid ground and steady me as I walk. (Psalm 40:2)

But oh, how I wish the Lord would rush to the rescue sooner, particularly for those I love. Because my ‘depressed spirit’ also resulted from concern and empathizing with so many family members and friends who are suffering far worse than me.

If they were mentioned among the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, their woes would be listed as such: experienced the death of a child, unemployment, loss of a home, financial devastation, divorce, major surgery, lack of health insurance, life-threatening illness, agonizing chronic pain.

Some of them remind me of Job. Sitting in a heap of ashes.

Begging for mercy. Pleading for answers. Waiting for the storm to pass. Trusting the Lord when everything shouts, “Give up!”

My spiritual mentor and friend, Loretta, once told me, “Trusting God is the most important ingredient in a believer’s life. Because there will be days when we’re in the desert and God appears silent. That’s when we have to trust who God is. And His promises.”

Loretta learned to trust God’s sovereignty early in her marriage. Trusting God—no matter what—proved invaluable and enabled Loretta to cope when her husband died in a plane crash. Instead of becoming a missionary with her husband, as planned, Loretta became the sole breadwinner and single mom of three young kids. Over the next twelve months, three other beloved family members died. Can you imagine the pain?

That living nightmare happened decades ago, and yet, from those ashes, grew a deeper trust in God. Here’s what she said:

“We have the opportunity to choose how we respond during adversity. We either bend and let God work in our lives in order to mold us. Or we resist and lose out on His lessons. Life is full of difficult circumstances. If we believe our circumstances are allowed by God, and that He withholds no good thing from us, then our trust grows and we’re better prepared for the next hard thing. Trust becomes—or can be—a way of life.”

Today, as I emerged from my lethargic fog, I thought about Loretta’s words when I saw the yellow daffodils preening in my yard beneath a blue sky.1929165_79192745912_7011292_nLast week, these flowers were bent. Beaten down by the cold, pummeling rain. Now, the daffodils stand tall. Their stems stretch heavenward as they soak up the sun. If I close my eyes, I can almost hear them sing. Heralding the coming Spring.

And a small voice whispers in the cool breeze. Trust God even in this…. 

 

 

 

Where’s the Hope?

“I’m not a very religious person,” said a young man who was interviewed on the street after the horrific shooting in Orlando, Florida. “But whatever religion you are, no matter what you believe—send it whatever—our way.”

He sighed as he tried to articulate his thoughts. “We all need it. We all need something. We all need that…hope. So just keep praying for us.”

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What is hope?

In the world’s vernacular, hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”

  • I hope our baseball team wins.
  • I hope it rains.
  • I hope you feel better soon.

However, it wasn’t hopeful, wishful thinking that triggered my brain when the man said, “Send it whatever our way.”

I yearned to tell him, “whatever it is” has a name and it’s not a “thing.”

It is Someone who loves you so much that He died in your place so you could experience a Living Hope that…

  • Exceeds expectations.
  • Satisfies desires.
  • Doesn’t disappoint.

I wanted to tell him about “Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1).

And that “our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers” (1 Timothy 4:10).

Only, I wonder if the irreligious man would have listened to me because…the world doesn’t want us to tell them about the hope within us.

They want us to show them.

The employees of several Chick-fil-a restaurants in Orlando could have told the wounded victims and the people who mourned, “We’re praying for you.”

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Instead, they showed compassion.

On a Sunday—when Chick-fil-a is normally closed—employees cooked and served free chicken sandwiches and sweet tea to hundreds of people who lined up to donate blood for the wounded.

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The folks who gave their blood also illustrated a compassionate heart. And reminds me…

God demonstrated His love towards us when He sent His only, begotten Son to shed His blood for me.

Before His crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples, “the world must be shown that I love the Father and do exactly as He commands.” (John 14:31 NEB)

People are watching.

When they look at Christians, do they see a talking head? Or a disciple of Christ who loves God and does what He commands:

  • Prays for our enemy.
  • Loves our neighbor.
  • Serves one another as unto Christ.

Sometimes, I’m tempted to feel hopeless when I’m going through a crisis. But Romans 15:13 says,

“May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.”

Like the distressed man said, “We all need hope.”

So let’s pray and show the world the radiant hope within us even in this difficult time.

When Death Interrupts Life

My uncle died Friday night.

Lying in hospital, his one strong hand clung to the woman he loved. His pale cheeks wet from my aunt’s  teary butterfly kisses.

My uncle had suffered a Stroke weeks earlier, but on Friday—the first day of spring—I didn’t know his frail body was shutting down….

While I played Florence Nightingale to my outdoor plants—amputating dead limbs, nurturing them with life-giving water.

Springtime—the smell of fresh-cut grass, a sky the color of robin eggs, yellow buds unfurling in the afternoon sun.  My Friday was pregnant with new life around me and joyful possibilities.

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 What a stark contrast to my uncle and aunt’s reality. Death’s chill shadow loomed over them as the life they knew and shared concluded.

And yet, even in this…gut-wrenching pain of letting go….Hope was present.

Hope is the balm that soothes the burning sting of death.

 “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. BUT Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Death can’t be sugar coated. “There’s a grief that can’t be spoken.” (Lyric from Empty Chairs at Empty Tables)

However, my uncle and aunt believed “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day….”

And their FAITH is what the Bible describes as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

This world isn’t the end all. There may be mysteries we can’t explain. But God has given us His Word, and His Promise, that death will be swallowed up in victory.

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The Columbine seeds I scattered in my garden last year now rise from the earth, but in a new form. The clover-like foliage and lavender bell-shaped flowers are more beautiful and fragrant than its seed.

“So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”

Because Christ lives, we live too!

That is the sweet reality for those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have LIFE in His name.” (John 20:31)

*Other scripture  cited is from 1 Corinthians 15

Photos by Jennifer Foster

Broken Lives in Search of Glue

She told me, “The man committed suicide.”

Just couldn’t live on this planet one more day.

I didn’t know him, but a knot forms in my gut while I wonder about the people in my life.

Is someone in despair? Would I recognize the signs?

 

I’ve talked with people who tried, without success, to help a loved one…

Change his behavior. Make her happy. Seek counseling. Point them to the Lord.

Forever haunted “If only I had done this, said that.”

Haven’t we all been there?

Been the person with good intentions who knows what’s best for another person. Only the other person won’t listen!

We stand there with a tube of super glue in our hands. Looking at the mess of a person; fallen and broken. Realize that even Humpty Dumpty’s men couldn’t put him back together again.

 

So how do I help a human being who doesn’t care enough to—”help me help you.”

And why do I presume to have the answers for someone else when I can still see the jagged scars where I tried to super glue my own broken pieces back together?

Fact is, there’s only one answer that will help.

One Truth that endures  when we find even ourselves in quicksand because the enemy who “seeks to lie, steal, kill, and destroy” loves to…

Chip at our self-esteem. Break our spirit. Convince us.

  • “This is good as it gets!”
  • “Who cares?”
  • “What’s the point?”

Until we’re broken, and feel beyond repair………….

That one Truth—Jesus Christ—says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

Then true to His Word, Jesus lifts us from the pit of sin and self-defeat and does the IMPOSSIBLE.

Jesus picks up the broken pieces. Puts us back together again, and reassures us:

This isn’t as good as it gets.

 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Someone cares.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1John 4:10)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Romans 8:35)

There is a point; an eternal purpose.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…” (Romans 8:28-29)

Even when we don’t feel God’s love, or comprehend His purposes,

Even in this….fallen world filled with broken promises, broken marriages, broken lives that break our hearts…and makes us weep.

Jesus tells us to “Come, and find rest.”

Are you broken?

Is your heart breaking for someone else?

Then Come!