hope

Living in the Waiting

A few weeks ago, my husband was gone on a business trip. As soon as I started getting ready for school, Myka became so sad. She walked around the house with her head down. She laid down on the rug in the bathroom and just looked at me with the saddest eyes. She knew. She knew that I also had to leave, and that was all she could focus on.

What she didn’t know was that she was going to hang out with her friends at doggy daycare that day. And, I couldn’t tell her! Because as soon as I said the words, “Do you want to go bye-bye?” she would be so excited that I wouldn’t be able to finish getting ready. I had to wait until it was time to go before I could tell her.

So, she moped because it appeared that we would both be gone, and she would be home by herself. She didn’t know that something good was coming.

The dictionary defines the verb to mope as to give oneself up to brooding, to become listless or dejected. I see it as an entire body reaction to circumstances. My eyes are sad, my whole body feels tired, and I move slowly because I just don’t have any energy or enthusiasm about anything.

I wonder if God ever looks at us and wishes that we would quit moping because something good is on the horizon if we would just trust Him in the waiting. He just can’t tell us yet.

How amazing would it be if we could still be happy and productive in the waiting. If we could still find joy and ways to serve God even while hoping for a prayer to be answered.

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24

When we ‘take heart’ we are expecting a good outcome. We can be hopeful and encouraged. We can go through our day with confidence that God is handling things leaving us to be able to serve Him in the waiting.

God knows the desires of our hearts. He knows exactly what we need and provides it at exactly the right moment. All we have to do is trust and keep living in the waiting.

Glimmers of Hope

In his book, Through the Eyes of a Lion, Levi Lusko calls grief an endurance sport. Nothing could be more accurate. I have run many sprints during my earthly life – the challenges of finishing school and graduating, the hunt for a job, the break-ups, financial struggles, illnesses, recovery from a surgery. Unlike all of those events that had a start and end time, grief is different. It has a start time. There is a dot on a timeline where my life changed in an instant. But it doesn’t have an end time. At least not here.

There will not come a day this side of Heaven, that I will round that last turn to give it one more big push, cross the finish line, wipe the sweat from my forehead and boldly proclaim that I have overcome my grief. It isn’t something that is overcome, it is something that is endured. As long as I live, I will miss Joshua. I will miss him during the big moments in life and in small random moments. Not because I am wallowing in self-pity, but because he was supposed to be here. My future included him. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Now that we are all sufficiently depressed, is there anything that I can do about it? Yes!

They say that knowledge is power. I have the knowledge that I am going to grieve losing him for the rest of my life, so I also have the power to make choices as to what I do with this grief.

I could stay home whine, be bitter, and sad the rest of my life. Trust me, there are days that option is so incredibly tempting.

Or, I could share our story. Not for sympathy or pity. Not to compete with others to see whose story is worse. Instead, I could share our story so that others see Jesus because Jesus is where we find out hope! Everyone has a story and everyone’s story is filled with agony and broken spirits. They are also filled with God’s goodness and blessings. They are filled with His mighty power. They are filled with His promises.

Our stories bring glimmers of hope. And there is nothing more powerful than the tiniest glimmer of hope. Hope can give our heart the desire to keep pressing forward. It can give our bodies a bit more energy to do the next thing. It can lift our spirits enough to see that the sun is still rising every morning and God still sits on the throne of Heaven.

Your story may not be grief. It may be chronic illness, abuse, mental health. Whatever adversity you have overcome, when you tell your story someone hears about Jesus. And that is where they find their own hope. That hope gives them the strength to persevere.

I pray you find opportunities to share your story today so that others may see Jesus and find the tiniest glimmer of hope to cling to.

Hope. It’s such a simple word, yet carries a mountain of emotions. The slightest bit can help anyone turn the page on a difficult season and start a new chapter with exciting possibilities.

We met with our While We’re Waiting Support Group this week. One of the things we talked about is the hope we have of seeing our children again. Hope can be a little harder to grasp on to this time of the year. Everyday is tough. Holidays are a little more so. Everyone talks about the joy of the season. Stores are dressed in bright colors and playing festive songs. Everywhere we look are pictures of happy families gathering together to celebrate.

It can be painful to those who are missing an important part of their family; those who aren’t able to feel the same joy as everyone around them.

How do we find hope when our hearts are hurting?

Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

When I first read this verse, I thought, “I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to minimize the pain of those who are hurting.” Yet the more I read that passage, the more hope I feel. While Paul isn’t specifically speaking about grief in this chapter of Romans, I think the message applies. The hurt, the pain, the sadness, the hole in our hearts will be nothing compared to the glory of Heaven. It hurts right now. It will hurt tomorrow. In some form, we will ache for those we have lost for the rest of our lives.

The difference is the hope we cling to as the grief hits us.

If we continue reading, verse 24 says. “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?”

We don’t hope for the things that we already have. However, we enjoy what we have while we hope for what is to come.

My favorite part of this chapter and the premise behind While We’re Waiting is in verse 25.. “But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”

Eagerly.

That doesn’t mean we put on a happy face and fake it through all of the holiday celebrations. It doesn’t mean that we accept every invitation to attend every event. It doesn’t even mean that we continue every single tradition from past holidays.

After losing someone special, life is hard. The hope of what is to come should help us do more than just muddle through the days. It should give us a reason to yearn for eternity. To give it our all while we are here, knowing that God has something amazing waiting for us.

The home that we have in Heaven is beyond anything our minds can fathom. I believe once we lay eyes on our Savior and the glory of eternity is revealed, the heartbreak, the pain, the difficulties of this earth, will all be forgotten. For what we are facing right now is nothing compared to the joy that is coming.