Friday, October 17, 2008

Hope

"Hope does not disappoint us...." You'll find that in Romans five right after Paul talks about all the things that make us three dimensional. I hope you read it. It is the first five verses of that passage. Hope must be divine. Anyway I believe it is. What I wrote about fear was a frustrated cry from the heart. It was informing you a hidden part of me. But it wasn't the last word. I am still in a dark place right now but the historian in me, the faith child in me clings to hope not as a rope on a cliff, but as arms holding me all the time. And it is in the dark places where I get to exercise that will that says to evil and the Evil One, "No matter what you throw at me I will not doubt that God has me in his arms and He will save me from all harm." It is a chance to "set my face like flint, knowing I will not be put to shame" as the suffering servant speaks of Himself in Isaiah. In fact it is my defining passage. I love that image to "set my face like flint" even as the enemy plucks my beard. I hope you read that passage also, I think it is chapter 49.

I do envy people who have hope naturally, courage naturally but that is not my path. I believe God has made me the way I am as a safety for my soul. In the horse world wise people say that we tend to buy horses that mirror our personalities. That was a major insight to me when I realized that Max is just about the strongest willed horse in the kingdom. If he doesn't back down from a buckskin mare whose name is Duchess and uses her back legs like battering rams then I am in trouble. Yet I had to laugh at God's joke. He has such a wonderful sense of humor! I have this will ......so strong to the negative pole.....so thanks!

Hope will never disappoint. There is nothing outside of Our Lord's blessed sight or intervention. There is nothing that is not from His Hand if we are in his arms and wanting His will in our lives. What a comforting thought!

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