On My Mind

There seems to be so much on my mind these days.

Some of it good- like the new guy, that's good. 

Not all of it is good though.

There are lots of things happening in the world today. 
Lot's of things that cause one to question things.

Like a blogger friend of mine who struggles with infertility and just had a failed attempt to get pregnant.
She has a desire to be pregnant so bad.  It's one thing that she seems to want more than anything else.
But endo has taken most of her chances on carrying a child. 

Then there is a little boy in our area that is fighting a brain cancer.
There is very little the doctors can do for him.  They are trying some chemo but the doctors told his mom that they don't believe he will leave the hospital.

I also received news from a friend of mine who has been serving on the mission field for 14 years that she is coming back to the states for, well at least a good while by the sound of it.  She fought and beat breast cancer 4 yrs ago and only returned to the field just this year.  And now she is coming back to the states.

This weekend I also heard of a pastor friend and his wife's struggle with their adopted son.  I son I have met, a RAD kid.  (RAD- reactive attachment disorder).  The hurt and pain this child is causing (even when he doesn't know he is causing it) to his adoptive family as his condition seems to worsen- not get better as he grows older.

It just doesn't seem fair. Not one little bit.

Now I say all this knowing that God has a plan. 
And I say that I don't understand His plan. 
But I do wonder- I do have a hard time wrapping my head around the whys.

And even in this Christmas season I still question things. 
And I find it amazing how much this message of HOPE seems to be calling out. 

I wrote my blog post for the jam last week regarding HOPE for the CHRISTMAS season. 
And then have had so many more moments of God showing and telling me of that Hope since then.

Something I had never really thought of before (something the new boy actually indirectly prompted me to think about after our non date Monday the 22nd.  When we were talking about Christmas and his lack of really caring for the holiday- and my honest feelings toward the same but also noting that I love the feeling behind the season).

This Sunday the sermon of the church I was attending (I was out of my own hometown) the pastor even spoke of the hope of the Christmas season.

These are some of the notes I took that morning, he was talking about the Christmas season yet HOPE was so entwined in all of it.
Hope-the joyful anticipation of good

Any area of your life that doesn't have hope is under the influence of a lie.

Hopelessness -the expectation that nothing will change.

We need hope of this side of the miracle- meaning once we have the miracle we don't need to hope for it- after all it has already happened- we have our miracle.
When we don't have hope we don't care about what happens.

We have:

Hope because he hears us

Hope because he is like us

Hope because we can be like him.



Luke 1:5-?

The Christmas story is about the birth of John & Jesus 
(How often do we leave John the Baptist out of this?)

We see more angelic activity in the Christmas story than we do anywhere else.

Luke 1:13

Your petition (prayer) has been heard. (said to Zachariah- John's father)

As the pastor put it,The prayer that you no longer pray has been heard. 
See Zack (yep I'm calling him that for short) and Elizabeth (Mary's cousin) had been barren for a long time.  Zack was old.  I'm not sure how old Elizabeth was but let's just say they waited for a child for many, many, many years. 

Sometimes the realities of life hit and we just stop praying because we can't handle the disappointment.

YET the prayers that you no longer pray have a long shelf life in heaven. It still talks. They are still echoing up there

Acts10:4

In the birth of John the fulfilment of prophecy and prayer gives us hope.

Jesus birth we discover a hope for a different reason.

It's the Me too aspect- someone gets your situation.

The incarnation where God enters into our story. They can understand. This is the God who knows what it's like to be human. A God who's present and knows what it's like.

A God on the cross who says I know how you feel.

We can't say- you don't know how I feel. You don't know what it's like.

He's been through everything we will ever go through.

God became like us so he can know what it is to be like us.

There is Hope in the Christmas story so we could become like him.


If Jesus did all things as the son of God instead of the son of man thru the holy spirit it would be different.  But He didn't- he did it - In right relationship with God.
He couldn't do things by himself and the spirit of God came upon him.

The son of God became and man so man could become sons of God. CS Lewis.

Acts 10:38

Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Heb10:23-25
Romans 15:5-6

If I could say anything to any of the people mentioned above, even the ones that already know this, would be this thing.

Don't give up hope.
Cling to it.  Hold on tight.
We have HOPE no matter what our circumstances are.
No matter what path we walk or where we are in our life's journey.

We have a God who brings us HOPE, who gives us HOPE if we will just choose to believe in that HOPE. 
The HOPE that is in HIM, not in us, not in ourselves, our jobs, our spouse, families, doctors or anything at all. 
But our HOPE in HIM. 
It changes all the rules of the game we call life.