I Choose Hope

Well blogging friends, unfortunately for you, my usual snarky comments are on a hiatus.

The past two weeks have been…trying? I’m not sure that is the right word, but I can’t really think of a better word for it. A week ago, I was taking the trials in stride…in fact, I would venture to say that I was even  rejoicing, sensing that God was about to do something big in our lives. I get these “premonitions” from time to time, before there is a big change. It isn’t always a tough or bad change either…just a change. Actually, on Tuesday night at Bible study, we discussed our faith and hope and joy in the middle of life’s trials, and I would say I was rather optimistic.

While I still feel my outlook is good, we did face a big change this week. On Wednesday, Michael’s dear friend, Emily Mulkey, passed away. Emily had been battling CF for 27 years, and on Wednesday, the Lord called her home…though it was rather unexpeted for everyone eslse.

One of the things we talked about on Tuesday night was choosing hope…or choosing Jesus…when bad things happen to us. We know that the enemy likes to paralyze us with fear and doubt…so we get planted where we are and never move forward…and often, being planted in our fear or doubt, we sink into this pit. That pit can be hard to get out of, and I’m sure that we all have our stories of being in that same spot. But over the past two weeks…through my 9th grade sunday school class, songs on the radio and through my own times of prayer, I’ve been reminded over and over again about the power in the name of Jesus. That just at the sound of his name, his enemies shudder and that knees will bow and tongues confess he is Lord…just at his name.

The past two weeks, I’ve found myself repeating in my head (and sometimes outloud), I choose Jesus. I choose hope. I choose Jesus. I chooses hope. And at some times this week, I’ve had to repeat it again and again until my heart agrees. Tonight, I was hugging Michael as he grieved over the loss of his friend and his sister’s hurt, and I was thinking about how thankful I am for the Lord. That even in one of the toughest two weeks emotionally, I’ve had in a while, that my heart had hope and my eyes looked up to the Lord. Even this morning, I read through several Psalms looking for the perfect verse of comfort to share with Michael, and what I read again and again is “great is the Lord and greatly to be praise….his lovingkidness is better than life…his love endures forever….the Lord hears my prayer and knows each tear I’ve cried…”

Anyways, I suppose that I don’t really have a point in all of this other than to say, Friends, you will face trials in your life. But my prayer for you is to choose Jesus and to choose hope when those trials come. He is always the salve to your wounds and the sweet relief you won’t even know you are in desparate need of.

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