My Hope is Found

I love new beginnings, and January 1^st is the grandest of new beginnings!  A fresh start! I have new (unrealistic?) enthusiasm for what I can do this year.  I know it won’t play out as glorious as I envision today, but today the vision is exhilarating!

For over a decade I’ve prayed about a verse to focus on each year.  Last year I simplified to a word.  This year the word came early, in November.  Hope.

I’m almost 50, and there are some things I’m coming to terms with that I probably won’t do and that probably won’t change.  At times I’m discouraged that it’s too late, that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  Hope is a very personal, interior word for me.  It reaches into the depths of my heart with the whisper that “In Christ alone my hope is found.”

My soul, my heart cries from within that the Lord is my portion.  What I’ve been allotted is by definition all I need to thrive, to live the abundant life.  The Lord is enough.

Because He is enough, I can hope. I can wait expectantly for what is to come.  I could rewrite the verse to say, “Therefore I will look forward with reasonable confidence, confidence in Christ, not myself or others or circumstances.”

“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

It’s fine and dandy to ‘say’ I hope, to intellectually acknowledge that in Christ alone my hope is found, but sometimes I want or need to feel it.  The path to feeling it involves drawing near to Christ.  I must pray.  I must dwell in the Word of God.  I must carve out time to be still.  I must unplug so I have a chance to hear the still, small voice.  The good news is that those practical steps give me a way to take action.  The bad news is that discipline and consistency is beyond challenging for me.  I want to be like Samantha Stephens from Bewitched and wiggle my nose for results.  This journey has no short cut.

I went rock-climbing with my family Christmas Eve.  No, really!!

I wasn’t sure I’d make it to the top, and there were several moments I thought I’d reached the end of what I could do.  I think the key to climbing a wall, to climbing a mountain, to walking with Jesus, to life, is to not look down/back.  As Ann Voskamp writes,

Failing? What feels likes losing is really gaining experience.

Forward!

Falling apart? Fall forward into whatever. comes. next.

Forward!

Fearful? Fear is always the first step forward of faith.

Forward!

Whenever you are lost, FORWARD is always the way Home.

I made it to the top of the rock because I kept looking forward and reaching forward.  This year, when I feel stuck, when failure looms large, when hope shrinks small, I purpose to move forward. When my prayer life falters, I will move forward and pray today.  When I’m weeks behind in my scripture reading, I will move forward and read today.  When it’s June and I’ve only memorized one stinkin’ verse, I will move forward and start on the second. When I’m frazzled, overwhelmed and just want to watch an entire season of Bones on Netflix while downing a bag of chips, I will move forward and take five minutes to breathe in stillness.

“This I call to my mind, therefore I have hope:

the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Lamentations 3:21

Amen.