Jennifer lives in the
In this post, Jennifer writes about experiencing God and hope in the very depths!
Welcome, Jennifer, and thank you!
Jennifer |
Those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31).
“Your pace will change from a sprint to a marathon,” she counseled. These words brought immense hope to my soul on the heels of a few exhausting years that did indeed feel like the 50-yard dash on replay every hour of my day.
The thought of a marathon panics some, but its pace is slower, steadier than the sprint, and yes, we still have a race to run, but perhaps it didn’t have to kill me?
I had been waiting for this comfort, and many translations in fact interpret the words “hope in the Lord” as “wait on the Lord.”
Following the meltdown of a business I was involved in, following the slander, the emotional pain, the despair of such magnitude I thought I might die of it, I discovered the truth that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
This renewal of strength is conditional of course, as all of God’s promises are, on a decision I had to make: would I hope in the Lord? If so, then I could soar with the wings of an eagle! I could run and not grow weary! I could walk and not be faint! These are miracles, all humanly impossible, for who among us can sprout wings or never tire or feel faint after endless movement?
I remember praying to God to make me invisible. For the first two weeks after this business collapse – and, without going into the details, I will simply reveal that I was unjustly accused of many things, including financial improprieties – I couldn’t leave my house (except for the picking up of the raw fragments of that business), held there by my own almost manic despair.
I certainly didn’t handle all business details well, and made some unwise, irresponsible and naive decisions, but this, Lord? This was too much.
My husband did the shopping, errands, and all necessary functions of life as I half-lived, my movements like a lizard’s tail that moves after it’s been dropped from the body. When finally I did have the strength to make one small trip to the store, I got through it by praying, “Lord, please let people miraculously look right through me. Make me invisible. I can’t handle people and their slander and their bitter words.” I yet had no hope and felt no grace.
I lived for a long time in fear and mistrust, which may be the antithesis of hope. Fear of never recovering, mistrust of the intentions of everyone, afraid of sleeping, for then the shadow of death settled in. And then came the period of the sprinting, sometimes running hard to prove I was something, sometimes running hard just to get away. I was wounded too much to hope, I thought. I couldn’t speak and I was mute and knew no one and no one knew me.
I lived in the Psalms during the dark days as in no other season of my life. In fact, I believe I never before even remotely had an emotional connection with the Psalms, with the pursuit of enemies, the sheer agony of despair that David cries out about. I never before needed Hope like I needed it during those years. I cried out to the Lord out of the brokenness of my spirit as I had never before cried. I could almost physically feel my mind splintering.
And behold, this hell is the very best opportunity to experience Hope, though who would want to live in these dark David-like caves? But who was called a man after God’s own heart?
“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.” These words precede the promise in Isaiah 40:31. In my own strength and youth (immaturity), I was weary and had utterly fallen. I needed Hope.
It took time, but gradually I re-entered normalcy as best I could, and bit by bit He renewed my strength. I would still be in that cave were it not for this promise of God: Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. God-sent friends thoroughly loved me through these months and years, believed in me, lifted me up, and indeed still lift me up, like the wise woman who shared the gift about the marathon. I clung to His Word. I was as the deer who panted for water.
Biblical hope is powerful and mighty to save. This hope is an expectation that positively, absolutely the thing will come to pass. The hope we’re waiting for is always God’s salvation, both His eternal salvation and the salvation we need in the daily moments of life. It’s beyond me, yet I must actively participate.
I found that Hope required me to move. I wanted to lie in bed in my despair but it was in the rising up, pursuing Him through prayer, worship, and meditation upon the Word, that Hope changed me.
Hope renews, and I’m also learning that it’s a daily renewal. Hope yesterday was for that day. Today? I need it fresh. Because sometimes, I still hear a graceless word and want to crawl in a cave and am overcome by fear and mistrust.
As Vincent McNabb, Irish scholar and priest,once said, “Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them.” I pray daily for that special grace to have Hope for the day, for new wings and fresh feet.
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK
Anita Mathias says
Thanks on Jen's behalf, LA. Jen has a lovely blog called Diary of 1. Perhaps she lives near you. She's in Oregon and is on my Facebook!
LA says
Excellent post! And a fellow PNWer as well! I loved the message about hope. So often people say “don't get your hopes up”… I even catch myself saying it sometimes. But your definition of hope is so realistic and spiritual that we *should* get our hopes up! Because in hope, we find God's amazing grace! Thank you for your contribution!
Jennifer in OR says
Thank you, Roy and Mom of 12 for your comments–I'm continually meditating on this hope myself, but only feel that the more I gain, the more I see I have yet to gain. I suppose that's what keeps us growing, though. 😉 Blessings on your weekend. ~Jen
Mom of 12 says
I agree! With God nothing is impossible!
Sandy
Anonymous says
“marathon not a sprint”
“it was in the rising up, pursuing Him through prayer, worship, and meditation upon the Word, that Hope changed me”
“Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them.”
These are all really worth meditating upon. Thanks,
Roy