Here's To Hope

I am not a big resolutions person…you could have guessed that by the fact that I haven’t blogged in forever and have told myself that I want to do more blogging this year.  My husband loves my lack of follow through…he adores it.  It usually works this way:  I get a great idea and start it. I fizzle out about halfway through the project and then he graciously comes along and finishes it – mainly because he can’t handle to see it sit.  I like the idea of coming up with resolutions, filling out those forms with hopeful answers…and that is usually as far as I get.  So, more years than not, I come up with themes for my life, goals, resolutions…and forget them a few weeks in.

But this year God is placing a theme in my life that I just can’t quite shake.  Again and again, He keeps bringing the theme of Hope back into my life. 

I’ll be honest and say that it is easy for me to lean toward despair instead of hope. I mean really, look at where we live and tell me how in the world I am supposed to find hope in this madness? But I really feel like that is the challenge God has given me this year. 

At the beginning of the year I was looking at statistics on the website of the WHO (World Health Organization). I saw that this country we live in had moved down in the ranks of having the highest infant mortality rate in the world…which is a good thing. But I found myself miffed.  Those stinking African countries that just keep getting worse and worse were moving to the top of the list! This was not okay with me. 

I had to stop and check myself.  Over the next few weeks as I examined my heart, I found that the hardness and hopelessness and despair of this place had become a thing of bragging rights for me.  I mean, if I can live and survive and raise my family well in this pit, then I am somebody, right?  Hero status is a lot easier to attain at chu.rches back home when you can tell horror stories.  When was the last time you oohed and ahhed over a story from a worker in France where life is pretty cushy?  That is my point. 

I thought back to a conversation I had witnessed a few years ago. Two women (stay at home moms) who work for our organization were basically having a brag contest. They were subtly striving to win the title of who had been closer to our friends who have been murdered in this country. They went back and forth recounting all of the occasions that they had talked with these people, had supper with them, seen them on the street, breathed the same air, etc. It was ridiculous. I walked away feeling sad for them that their identity was wrapped up in this.  

As I sat bemoaning the (slowly) improving state of this country, I thought back to my friends. I realized how sad it was that my identity had become so wrapped up in the suffering and anguish of people. I want to see people as treasures and full of deep potential for good rather than statistics of despair.  

Around the time that God was working on my heart about this, I also began to hear many stories of hope and positive things that God was doing. People He was changing, lives He was touching, healings, miracles, restoration.  And God brought this word hope.  That verse, “see I am doing a new thing” has really resonated with me.  God has been faithful to give me some beautiful glimpses of what He is doing in this place and I am so thankful for that. 

So this year, that is my plan, to stick with hope.  I am excited to see how God keeps bringing stories of hope and His faithfulness to me. I smile a little each time as I stand in awe of His goodness. It is easy for me to forget what He is doing here, but He is making it glaringly obvious and I rejoice in that. 

So, here’s to hope!