For When HOPE is HIDDEN

What a difference a day makes!

Two nights ago a friend was so unhappy with her life in its current state that she was talking of ending it. Twenty-four hours later she was reporting to me that she’d had the best day yet since she moved into her new living arrangement.

What happened to cause the change? A big part of it was the first success she’s had in achieving a physical goal that she had been struggling with for months. Suddenly she was able to complete the task, and the achievement changed her mood and her outlook on life completely. Suddenly she had some hope that things for her were going to be okay.

Suicide is caused by the absence of hope… by despair over a current situation and a conviction that it is never going to change.

But hope is never absent. It may be difficult to see sometimes, like the sun hidden by the cloudbank. But it always rises at the start of a new day…and the knowledge that it is there helps us bear the current conditions until they change for the better. Like the sun burning through the fog that surrounds us, the Son is working all things out for our good. Sometimes it just takes some time to see it.

And if we quit the game before God says it’s over, we miss the victory that could have been ours. So don’t ever quit. Don’t give up. Success could be just a day away.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

(Hebrews 11:1 KJV)

 

Reminders and Remembrances

 I came across one of my “life verses” in my Bible reading this morning. 

 To me, a life verse is a Scripture passage that carried me through a difficult time, or perhaps marked a specific encounter with God. The prophet Samuel’s “Stone of Ebenezer”, which translates to “stone of help” was erected to remind the Israelites of a time when God did exactly that. And what was once Jacob’s stone pillow for a night he turned into a memorial to a meeting with God that changed his life forever. 

 That’s what 1 Samuel 1:27 is to me. 

When Jim and I were first married, we had decided that we weren’t going to bring children into our union. There was no specific reason; perhaps the fact that neither of us had a strong desire to have kids was reason enough. We simply enjoyed our life together and truly enjoyed those early years. But on a Sunday morning three years in, I suddenly changed my mind. I, too, had a meeting with God in the church service that morning that birthed in me a sudden desire to give birth to some kids! I repented of despising what God meant to be a gift and a blessing and was suddenly very receptive to the idea. 

The problem was that Jim was not. He reminded me that we had agreed to keep our marriage children-free. “But I changed my min!” I protested. “I have not,” was his retort. 

We could’ve argued and fought over the issue and destroyed the peaceful harmony in our home to date. God cautioned me not to go that route. Instead, He would cause Jim to bring the subject up himself when the time was right. All I had to do was wait. 

Two years of silent prayers went by, and then one day Jim told me he was ready for us to start a family… only to change his mind by nightfall, saying apologetically that he still was not in that place. Instead of being angry and frustrated as one might expect, I was overjoyed and filled with hope! Jim had brought the subject up on his own, using the words I was waiting for! And although he took them back mere hours later, I received them as a sign that God was working in the situation. The only way to describe how I felt at that moment is to quote what the Bible says about how a woman named Hannah reacted after making a similar plea before the Lord: “she left and ate something; she was not sad anymore.” 

Neither was I! In fact, although it took some time, my story continued to mimic hers: “Hannah became pregnant, and in time she gave birth to a son.” And it’s her words again when she gave her boy back to God that have become an “Ebenezer” in my life: “For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him” (1 Samuel 1:27 KJV). 

I’m so grateful for that memory…and especially for that child!... again today.