My One Word: Hope

I just love a good book! Especially when it offers encouragement and helps me draw closer to God. The first book I read this year was My One Word: Change Your Life With Just One Word, by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen. The "My One Word" project is something that Ashcraft has been doing at his church for several years. The concept is quite simple: do something for the year about just one thing - instead of nothing about everything. So, my homework assignment was to choose just one word that represents what I want God to do in my life and in my heart, then focus on it for an entire year. So, to start 2015, I chose the word HOPE. (I figured it was the perfect choice, since 2014 ended in a puddle of hopelessness).

I'm amazed at how many scriptures there are about hope. My key verse is Psalm 33:22: "Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone."

Every time I pick up my Bible, I come across more and more words filled with hope.  When I start to wonder why I should even get out of bed - "what's the point of all this anyway?" - I'm encouraged to press on to reach the end of the race, to receive that heavenly prize for which God, through Christ, is calling me (Phil 3:13-14). 

I need that reminder because many days I'm just plain exhausted. I know I'm not alone. Several  of my friends are hanging on by an emotional thread and ready to fall into the abyss any minute. It's the curse of menopause, and the curse of Adam. "All your life you will struggle to scratch a living...[the ground] will grow thorns and thistles for you...by the sweat of your brow ..."  Yeah. Thanks a lot, Adam. We've all been working for so many years, and we're dang tired. We need to see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel (is retirement ANYWHERE in sight?). 

But, then I'm reminded. I can't put my hope in anything but God. Not my husband, my kids, my bank account, my job, my future retirement, my health, my friends, my house ... it's all just quicksand. So, repeat after me: God, alone, is my refuge and my hope. Amen

Comments

  1. PattyMarch 29, 2015 at 6:49 AM

    Oh, Mar. I adore this post! Just what I needed to read this morning. So weird yesterday, I wrote "Expect nothing but God." That is the only place I can put my HOPE, my dreams, my plans, my everything where they will be safe and secure. If I put them anywhere else, they are shattered. Thank you for sharing your gift of words!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Missing Adam - My Nature Boy

Image
Hi Adam. I took an early-morning walk yesterday and thought of you.   Not that I don’t think about you every single day, every hour, sometimes every minute, because I do.   But when I’m out in nature, I think about you the most.   I know you would have loved watching the sun climbing up into the sky yesterday. It was so peaceful and beautiful.    It’s been three months today since you left us.   I miss you so much.   I wonder what you are doing right now.   The Bible says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9).   I’m sure the nature scenes you’re seeing are much more amazing than anything I could ever imagine.   I can’t wait to enjoy them with you some day. I still remember the first time you ventured out into the Desolation Wilderness by yourself for a week.   We were so worried!   You came home so happy (and stinky!).   You were all scratched up, but filled with joy over having spent t
Read more

The Things We Pack

Image
I gazed out the window of our cruise ship cabin. Grey-blue waves seemed to stretch out infinitely over the horizon. We were 700 miles from San Francisco where we’d departed, headed for Hawaii. Tears welled up in my eyes, fogging up my glasses.  Why am I so sad? I should be enjoying this vacation, not pining away at this window.  But I couldn’t help it. The ocean view was just a visual reminder of the endless grief waves that keep crashing over me. Even though it’s been a little over eight months, they just keep coming.  Will they ever stop?  The grief books assure me they will eventually slow down. I sure hope so! Back in the fall, we planned the late-January vacation knowing that the holidays, followed by Adam’s birthday two weeks after Christmas, would likely leave us drained. We were right. As we packed the Sunday before, I asked Don, “Do you think there will ever be a day when we don’t think about losing him?” “We’ll never stop thinking about him,” Don said. “But
Read more

My One Word For 2016: Release

Image
A very sad thing happened to Rudolph on the way to Christmas dinner.  He lost one of his antlers on the freeway. "How can this be?" You ask. Well, it all started when my mother-in-law rolled down the window...well, actually, it started when I purchased a red nose and antlers for my KIA. Silly. Yes. But fun. And these days I'll take all the fun I can muster up. But my fun didn't last long, because when we picked up Don's mom on Christmas, she didn't know the rule about not rolling down the window. So, there I was, perched in the back seat balancing the scalloped potatoes and flowers and salad and such. In a split second - woosh! The antlers flew onto the freeway. Oops. Sorry about that.  I've been praying for the past couple weeks about what ONE word God wants me to focus on in the coming year. Last year my word was HOPE. I've been sensing that in 2016, He wants me to focus on the concept of RELEASE. Letting go. Setting free. Giving up. I think t
Read more