Hope and Faith

Hi Everyone/Anyone
I wanted to talk about hope: where to find it, how to find it, the different faces it has and the need for it. We are in times, as I suspect we have always been and may always be, when things are difficult. Every generation has had its tales of woe, hardship, change, and fear. From biblical times we have failed each other, exploited what we have around us for our own profit and allowed greed to dominate when compassion would serve us better. We need hope and lots of it.

Personally I am completely fallible. I don't always do what I say I will, I am selfish, I may blame others when threatened, I am afraid lots of times and despite knowing better I still can be duped into believing that everything revolves around me. I had a challenging upbringing, and still have unpolished social skills that not only put me on the hot seat but often the folks around me too.

As I age and without a firm education it is harder to find work, harder to work full-time and harder to thus support myself. Everything is expensive, gas, housing, food. If you don't have medical benefits, dental benefits or prescription benefits being sick becomes an all round test of your survival skills, both in Canada and the US. Toys and comforts that others take for granted are out of reach to me (don't let me fool you into feeling sorry for me because most of this is my choice).

I've never been good with money and honestly haven't really cared about it that much (except when a severe ongoing shortage arose). I love, love, love to spend it (not just on myself either) when I have it and make do when I don't. I don't own a home, my car is rickety, and I don't have an RRSP.It sounds like I'm boasting but I'm not. Just establishing a bit of perspective. What I lack in tangible goods I have been blessed to overcome with friends and faith that has brought me a hope for the future I have never, ever had in my life.

So here is my firm and fearless declaration: I love God, I believe Christ died for our sins/my sins on the cross and as a result I have God in my camp. What does this mean you might be thinking? Well to me it means: you betcha I am human, sinful and so, so fallible but...it also means I have a hope in something larger and greater than myself that these character flaws can be burned off, refined and that no adversity or problem goes to waste. Every mistake or seeming shortcoming, I believe with all my being that, God uses to the good. Thoughtlessness, stupidity, missteps, criminal behavior all are used in the service of a greater good. God redeems it all for the good of others. In serving others with our real, true selves we heal and gain hope.

I know that I am called to be more than even I want myself to be and that the call to be so goes hand in hand with the tools required to meet the charge. If I hadn't been a lonely, gangly kid what would I have to say to someone who feels left out? If I hadn't tried to overrule pain with addiction how could I understand a fellow alcoholic or overeater? I never would have had an ounce of sympathy for a mother who thinks she is doing a crummy job if I hadn't been a single mom. If I wasn't under duress now what would I have to tell the people around me who struggle daily? Every adversity, struggle, hardship has gone into the person I am today, the character I am still trying to develop and the love I have for encouraging other people. Yet there is still more to hope for.

I am hurt when I hear other people talk about themselves like they have nothing to offer, like their lives amount to nothing, their struggles were just struggles with out any meaning or value. These are the people, who don't give up, care for others before themselves, are always afraid of being a burden on others, as if their stories and the courage to live them out are invisible.

They aren't. Your life has purpose and substance. Your story isn't for nothing. Maybe we don't see where it all is heading, don't get a resolution all nicely tied up with a big red bow but your difficulty can lead to hope, and wisdom and service to others. Hardship can be a pervuyer of doom or a tool of fortitude. You can either grow a pair or lose a pair. It really is a choice we make. Fall down and get back up or stay down. If you think that the fact that you have gotten up more than the average person has no worth you are wrong.

We need to stop measuring success by the lives we don't have and that others seem to come by so easily. Really, take a long hard look at our own hearts. I believe God asks us to choose who we want to be, how we want to be. For many of us this choosing has been going on a lifetime. I would bet that a lot of us have had urgings to do right, get involved, stand up for injustice,and serve others in our hearts since we were kids. Some call it Karma, fate, good instead of God but the desire for truth and better things rests in our hearts and is the essence of hope - wanting more than what we are (not have). That is hope. A call to things wanted, wished for and the belief that we can see them come to fruition is hope.

Hope looks like, getting up, standing up, rising up, perseverance, making one more step, kindness, patience, compassion, understanding, communicating, worshipping, praying, learning, being ready to face whatever comes our way with courage, living, realtionships, friendships, forgiveness, resisting temptation and so much more.

Each of us can plant hope when we let someone else know we value them, not just care about them but really let them know we believe that their existence is valuable and is never a mistake. It doesn't take much to instill this in somebody either. A chat, offering an alternate truth to the one they see, encouragement, or a compliment go a long way in bringing the hope out in someone else's life. And the really cool, weird, divine thing is that when you offer it up, it comes right back to you.

So there you go. I am a hope and encouragement junkie. I crave the giving as much as the getting but the real high is in the giving.

See you next time
Jane