President Obama wrote a book about three years ago called "The Audacity of Hope." I have not read this book, but the title intrigues me a lot. Specifically, why is hope audacious?
A week or so ago I was sitting in our church's prayer room when I felt in my spirit the Lord stirring me to hope again. If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know that since about September, life has been overflowing with peace and calm. There are so many lessons I have learned in the last seven months. One thing that seems to have eluded me, however, is the desire to hope again. It isn't that I have been in a full-on hopeless state, but it has felt like I have come to accept the mundane and perpetually mediocre as normal for me.
When I felt this stirring in my guts to hope again, it came as a bit of a shock: how had I gotten to a place where hope was NOT normal? In light of this, I realized that while I had moved past the idea that the Lord had nothing but pain and turmoil for me, I had NOT moved on to fully expecting abundant life, though that is my inheritance. As a daughter of the King of Kings, I should live hoping for and expecting abundance. I don't mean this in the prosperity gospel, materialistic kind of way. I mean abundance of life on the inside, in my heart, in the fruit of the spirit, and yes, even sometimes in my circumstances too.
I wrote in my journal on that night a long entry about hope....that this year would be a year of jubilee, that this would be a year of blessing, of joy, of outrageous outpouring of amazingly wonderful LIFE. I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, because I feel like I have the power to make changes in my life at any time, and so I have decided to hope extravagantly yet again.
This brings me back to my first paragraph about the "audacity of hope." Barack Obama describes hope as audacious. The definition of this word is: fearlessly, recklessly bold, daring, disregard of normal restraint." I find it fascinating that the president of our country would describe hope as audacious.
The reality is that hope should be NORMAL.....not fearless, not reckless, not restrained, but NORMAL. I mean, I've got the God of the universe on my side, working on my behalf. I know how my story ends. I know that all things work together for my good. I know too much to live a life of not expecting the worst, but also not expecting the best.
This is what the Lord is asking of me: to make hope normal again.
Blessings,
Erin
A week or so ago I was sitting in our church's prayer room when I felt in my spirit the Lord stirring me to hope again. If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know that since about September, life has been overflowing with peace and calm. There are so many lessons I have learned in the last seven months. One thing that seems to have eluded me, however, is the desire to hope again. It isn't that I have been in a full-on hopeless state, but it has felt like I have come to accept the mundane and perpetually mediocre as normal for me.
I wrote in my journal on that night a long entry about hope....that this year would be a year of jubilee, that this would be a year of blessing, of joy, of outrageous outpouring of amazingly wonderful LIFE. I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, because I feel like I have the power to make changes in my life at any time, and so I have decided to hope extravagantly yet again.
This brings me back to my first paragraph about the "audacity of hope." Barack Obama describes hope as audacious. The definition of this word is: fearlessly, recklessly bold, daring, disregard of normal restraint." I find it fascinating that the president of our country would describe hope as audacious.
The reality is that hope should be NORMAL.....not fearless, not reckless, not restrained, but NORMAL. I mean, I've got the God of the universe on my side, working on my behalf. I know how my story ends. I know that all things work together for my good. I know too much to live a life of not expecting the worst, but also not expecting the best.
This is what the Lord is asking of me: to make hope normal again.
Blessings,
Erin
A month ago I introduced Karen Fergason to Curby. A few days later in the morning, she and I were sitting together having a quiet time and I said, "Well, what do you think?" - and I must have looked nervous and unsure.
ReplyDeleteShe said, "I think we too often accept trial from the Lord and not blessing."
Yes, its the opposite of what the bible says, but how true it was in my life.
I kept expecting the other shoe to drop. Or for something to go wrong. Or that suddenly it would all blow up.
It still might, I guess. But the Lord has given me hope. And Karen's reminder exposed my secret lack of hope and belief.
I was realizing recently, that before I met Curby, I had almost lost hope that the Lord had anything good for me. The Psalmist says, "But as for me, my foot had almost slipped." and that was me - as for me, my foot had almost slipped and I had almost fallen into complete lack of hope.
Then the Lord knocked my socks off and showed me that he was working all along. I hope that I can remember this lesson in the future, too.
I love your post. Hope should be normal and I will be praying for YOU to have hope, in jesus' name.