Tag: hope

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Pressing on Toward Hope

A winding mountain road shrouded in clouds.
Exodus 5:7 (ESV)—“The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

The arrow on the GPS screen bounced like a Ping-Pong ball. It faced north, then south, then east and west. It located my husband and I on at least three different Chicago streets. We needed only the one direction, the way to the interstate. We drove onward until the arrow meandered along the blue line for blocks at a time.

Moses and Aaron, too, pressed onward to travel to the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God. Like our route, their route to exodus from Egypt included a few trials. Pharaoh’s sorcerers and magicians repeated God’s signs—a staff into a snake, the plague of blood, the plague of frogs—to Moses and Aaron. Even once Pharaoh’s people couldn’t repeat the signs, Pharaoh reverted his promise to release Moses and Aaron along with the Israelites into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God.

However, God had a plan for these signs and wonders: irrefutable proof of his sovereign reign.

In the trials of everyday life, the route we travel is not perfectly mapped out. Road blocks force a change of direction. Fog makes it hard to see where we’re going. Severe weather stops our trip altogether. Yet God is always leading us toward his truth during these uncertainties, toward hope.

To walk toward hope, we cannot harden our hearts as did Pharaoh. Instead, we can open our hearts to God’s divine direction and seek irrefutable proof of his sovereign reign.

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Stewarding God’s Ministry

Beach with seashells and seaweed 
Colossians 1:24-27 (NIV)—I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.

The beach teemed with people lounging under umbrellas and tents. Cooler tops were popped open and towels were draped over chair backs.

The perfect beach scene…until I looked more closely. The tide touched an abandoned plastic bottle, pulling it out to sea. A broken bottle cap played hide-and-seek in the seaweed.

Beach lover that I am, I picked up the trash. I wanted the aquatic life to live by God’s design, not live a shortened life caused by clumsy human disposal.

Like stewardship makes a more beautiful beach, our stewardship of God’s ministry on earth makes God’s word more meaningful. Our rejoicing in our God-appointed commission even during our afflictions reveals to the people around us the mystery of God, our hope of glory.

Because Christ lives in us, we do not suffer for nothing. Our suffering acts as a beacon of light for other sinners to find salvation. And when other sinners find salvation, they too, like us, live life by God’s design.

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Abiding in the Valley

Mountain valley covered in snow in the Swiss Alps
A building set in a mountain valley with a stream running through, located below the Ebenalp mountain peak in Switzerland.
Psalm 23:4 (ESV)—Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Many a valley has captured my attention. I’ve hiked the hills of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, gazing down on yellow aspens in the fall. In Switzerland, I’ve gawked at the Alps from a train car winding its way through the rugged mountains, the valley views spectacular from above and below. I’ve sat in the passenger seat while my husband drove us on the winding Pacific Coast Highway, traveling from valley through clouds and above the clouds, the white floor stretching out like a vast flatland meadow.

Valleys give us good reason to not fear “the valley of the shadow of death.” The valley is alive with God’s creation. The trees provide the oxygen we need to live; bathe us in shade on hot summer days; and of course give us a tangible, up-close picture of God’s creation. Clouds can warm the earth at night, protect us from the sun’s heat during the day, cast rain on the earth, and warn of inclement weather.

The valley also plays host to God’s people, and God uses the valley to protect and provide for his people. For example, in the story of Isaac and Abimelek, Isaac moved to the Valley of Gerar, after the Philistines filled the wells of his father, Abraham. Isaac’s people dug more wells, but others disputed ownership of the first two. The third, undisputed by others, “he named it Rehoboth, saying, ‘Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land’” (Genesis 26:22).

The valley, though sometimes shaded with our troubles, also offers hope. From the valley, we can move our gaze upward to our Father and pray for his provision and protection. Indeed, when we feel as if we’re in a valley, we can “abide in the shadow of the Almighty,” our “refuge and fortress” (Psalm 91:1–2).

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Spotlight of Hope

View of the Grand Canyon with a blanket of clouds and a spotlight of sunshine on the rocks in the distance
Deuteronomy 30:6 (ESV)—And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

On the day I visited the Grand Canyon, clouds softened the rays of the sun, except for one brilliant spotlight of sunshine far in the distance. This spotlight offered the hope of warmth on this breezy thirty-some degree day, where the shadows on the rocks made the canyon look like a painting, the layers of red and beige sandstone in stark contrast to one another and the sheer cliff face dotted with patches of snow and shrubs.

In Deuteronomy 30, Moses reminded the Hebrews of this spotlight of hope. He said that if they’d turn their lives over to God, fully and completely, they’d experience a stark contrast from curses to blessings and they’d no longer be scattered like shrubs throughout the lands. God would turn the spotlight on them, gathering them together and circumcising their hearts.

God’s promise reaches us today. If we turn our lives to him, working toward our eternal reward, he’ll shine his spotlight on us, gathering us in Christian community and circumcising our hearts to restore our spirits.

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Restoration: A Hope and a Future

The Kerid crater in Iceland
The Kerid crater in Iceland
Jeremiah 29:14 (ESV)—I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Thousands of years ago, a cone-shaped volcano, Kerið, erupted, emptying its reserve of magma. The volcano’s cone then collapsed into the empty space, forming today’s Kerið crater. Sometime after the collapse, the chamber filled with water, and not muddy, brown water, but aquamarine water, colored by the minerals in the rocks. This tourist attraction has an embankment with streaks of red from iron deposits, and moss grows along the slope.

At times, we may feel as if our own life has erupted and emptied its magma chamber. We feel depleted and empty, alone and sorrowful, dreadful and tired. The weight becomes too much to bear, and the collapse shakes us even more. The emptiness presses in, filling our souls with muddy, brown water. Trusting in God in this moment feels like lifting a large boulder. Impossible.

But it’s not impossible. God wants us to seek him and find him. Then, amid the chaos of life, God offers us restoration, an aquamarine light at the end of the tunnel, a beautiful painting in tones of red, a glimpse of life among the rocky soil. He offers us a hope and a future; he offers to bring us back from our exile.