"It's a troubling thing when your soul demands what your brain rejects." Erwin McManus, Soul Cravings
"I'm not really motivated. I don't know why I am still here," she confessed as I listened to her talk about life in the nursing home. She said she felt lost and alone, totally insignificant. It doesn't take long for some people to lose hope after several unsuccessful attempts to climb out from beneath the debris pile of life. Hope is supposed to be our internal guidance system that keeps us on track and focused on the future. But, the ocean of despair can be an overwhelming eraser. It can tempt us to believe all hope for the future is lost and we can lose sight of a purpose beyond ourselves. If it wasn't for God, we would all be drowning in the ocean of despair haunted by our soul craving for this irrational need for hope.
Some very smart and educated people may try to convince us that we can live without God and without hope. The troubling truth is life may not end when we lose hope but it will stop. Sometimes all we need is one person to really see us, to reach in and truly care. Dr. Basman Alashi caught my attention this week as I read reports from the Middle East. The title of the article gripped my heart, "We Stay Together, or We Leave This World Together." You can read the article here.
Hope for the future brings possibility and potential. It gives birth to resilience and it's an active resistance against the darkness. Amazing strength is unleashed within us if we can find purpose beyond ourselves. Jesus revealed God's greater purpose for all Creation. His command is simple. We are to love as we have been loved by God. We are to define success as becoming more Christ-like. We are to follow Jesus on a daily basis which means daily dying to our self. A true sense of destiny helps us not only endure but persevere during unimaginable obstacles and hardships. It's often the worst that brings out the best in us.
Choose to define success by opening the eyes of the blind. Reach one who cannot see their significance to God. Remind someone who's close to the brink of despair that hope has the last word. As far as we know, the tomb is still empty and Jesus promises to come back. So, in the meantime, let's get to work. Destiny is waiting to be fulfilled.
"The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens." Romans 8:19-21 The Message