The Search for Hope: Part 1

When you really think about it hope is a funny thing isn’t it?

I mean it is hard to tangibly identify hope in our lives. Every one of us looks for hope in different places. Some of us look for hope in relationships, some in financial security, some of us look for hope in achievement or recognition.

And if you are a follower of Jesus than there is also a part of many of us that seeks to find hope in our relationship with God.

Hope is a tricky thing. For many of us it seems like an ever-elusive mirage that we just cannot reach. For others hope may seem like a distant memory.

But in reality, hope is the very thing that lifts us up. Like a balloon, hope is that thing that pulls us up no matter what the circumstances of life.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about hope?

The other day I was standing outside a hospital in Pittsburgh and for many people that place is an axis point of hope in the community.

For some people it is the very place where they will lose hope. In conversations with doctors they will learn that their body is failing, that they are sick and at that moment they may begin to loose hope.

For others this hospital is a place of great hope. For couples, who have longed to have children this may be the day that they welcome new life into our world. For these people, this is the place where hope has just begun.

Every one of us knows what it feels like to gain and lose hope in life. Don’t we?

In the book of Job chapter 6 we see one of the great laments in scripture. Job is wrestling with the loss of hope in his life and in verse 11 he says, “What strength do I have, that I should still hope?” “What prospects, that I should be patient?”

In this verse Job shows us that our hope is often found in the things that lie ahead and when they are removed it often leads to the loss of hope in our lives.

Everyone of us knows what it feels like to lose hope don’t we? Maybe it was a relationship that you thought had a future but didn’t last. Maybe it was a promotion that you hoped would provide for your family but never came? Maybe it is a physical aliment that has limited your life and taking away some of your dreams.

We all know what it feels like to lose hope.

Read through the lament of Job in Chapter 6:1-11.

Describe a time in your life when you were full of Hope?

Describe a time in your life when you have lost Hope?

How would you describe the status of Job’s hope?

What has lead to this?

Have you ever written a lament like this? When?

Living Disturbed

If I am honest one of the main threats to my faith is the comfort I so richly enjoy. In this writing Sir Francis Drake asks God to disturb his life so that he may be part of something even greater than himself. Do we have the guts to pray this prayer?

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Sir Francis Drake -1577

Is the Gospel Conservative?

A couple of weeks ago I was in a discussion with my small group and we somehow got on the topic of conservatism.

Most of us in this group would consider ourselves conservative in one way or another, and the current book we were reading was challenging many of the ideals we held closely.

As were discussing, a question came into my mind: Is the Gospel conservative?

Conservative by definition means: disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.

In contrast Liberal by definition means: favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.

In Matthew 28 Jesus commands us to: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

As I processed this thought, I began to realize that in many ways the Gospel is anything but conservative.

Matter of fact many of the commands that Jesus gives us are rather liberal.

Jesus tells us to love God liberally. Mt 22:37
Jesus tells us to love people around us liberally. Mt 22:39
Jesus tells us to serve people around us liberally. Mt 18
Jesus tells us to give liberally. Mt 6:1-4; 19-24
Jesus tells us to share the truth with those around us liberally. Mt 28
And God loves us liberally Mt 11:28-30

I am still processing this thought but as the church moves forward maybe what we need is not to look back to what was once, but rather what could be in the future.

Maybe we need to be less conservative, and a maybe we really need is to live a new liberal.

What is Contemplation?

I was reading a section of What is Contemplation? By Thomas Merton today. This section convicted my greatly today:

If you desire intimate union with God you must be willing to pay the price for it. The price is small enough. In fact, it is not even a price at all: in only seems to be with us. We find it difficult to give up our desire for things that can never satisfy us in order to purchase the One Good in Whom is all our joy-and in Whom, moreover we get back everything else that we have renounced besides!

The fact remains that contemplation will not be given to those who willfully remain at a distance from God, who confine their interior life to a few routine exercises of piety and a few externally acts of worship and service preformed as matter of duty. Such people are careful to avoid sin. They respect God as a Master. But their heart does not belong to Him. They are not really interested in Him, except in order to insure themselves against losing heaven and going to hell. In actual practice, their minds and hearts are taken up with their own ambitions and troubles and comforts and pleasures and all their worldly interests and anxieties and fears. God is only invited to enter this charmed circle to smooth out difficulties and dispense rewards.

Does He really have our heart?

Prayer

My Lord God
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following
your will does not mean
that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that my desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire
in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear,
for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

"I AM"

I wrote this personal vision statement when I was in college For me it has been a great thing to pull out and reflect on from time to time in life.

"I AM"
by
MPA

I am an adopted son of God.

I choose to live my life in service for my Lord.

I will not work for a paycheck or live for the weekend.

I will focus on doing God's work and feel blessed if material things come my way.

I do not plan to have a mansion until I get to heaven.

I will not lay up my treasure here on earth.

I will serve others before myself and share God's love with a world that is starving for it.

I will never loose my sense of humor.

I will never completely grow up.

I will always be grateful for what God has given me thru my family and friends.

I will never be able to repay my parents for the sacrifices they have made for me, but to them I will always be grateful.

I will never be able to repay Christ for the sacrifice he has made for me, but to him I am eternally grateful.

I love Jesus Christ and will live my life for him.

I love the people of this world.

I hate sin.

My life may not be the easiest or most comfortable but one day I will look my creator in the face and He will tell me that I have done well. Then it will all be worth it.

I plan to hug Jesus when I finally get home.

Praise be to God forever and ever.

Amen.

Prayer for the Church

A couple of friends of mine have passed this prayer along to me. I think it is a great window into the current need for reformation in the church.

God,

We yearn to be the church you want us to become.
Shape us into something beautiful
We recognize that you are the Potter and we are the clay
Please continue to mold us into the image of Christ

We want to join in what you are already doing in the world.
In our worship and life together, in our ministry and service
to others, we want to give people a glimpse of your intentions
for the whole world.

Help us to welcome the outcasts, love our enemies,
and form a Community that is visibly different from the culture around us
as a sign of what you are doing in the world.

Help us experience your love and grace,
grow in our relationship with Jesus,
and experience the power of your Spirit
as we offer your good news to others.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

The Lens of God

Today I was reading a writing on “Godly Mediation” from Thomas More. In this section, More reminds us of the importance of looking at life through the lens of God.

He stresses the importance of living single-hearted in our pursuit of the Creator.

In my journal I was convicted at how many times I fail to do this in my daily life. In Jeremiah 17:5 scripture says, “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength. . . The will be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes.”

Today as you walk through life take some time to look at it through lens of God. Your family, your home, your job and struggles, the people that support or oppose you try to see this all through the eyes of our creator. It is when I stop to do this I often find that this changes everything.