Bubbles of Hope

Bubbles by John Everett Millais

My husband and I bought this print in Williamsburg, VA years ago.  I fell in love with it.  Can't you feel the hope in this little guy's heart...hoping that beautifully iridescent thing that he had just created will float on the air forever for him to cherish?  

Then in an instant it bursts and the beauty and wonder are gone. 

This little guy also reminds me of another little guy that I haven't met in person, but was anticipating our meeting about the time I found the painting.  I know the two look alike - the bubble craftsman and my sister's miscarried little wide-eyed blond boy.  My mother-in-law, who "graduated to Beulah Land" last year loved to hear my own little blond guy giggle and chase the bubbles she created for him.  I'm really looking forward to blowing bubbles together, all of us, in Heaven.  Surely the silver,  rainbow-catching bubbles won't burst into nothingness in Heaven's breezes.

 It really hurts to watch our dreams break apart and float away.  It is so disillusioning  when our beautiful, hope filled bubbles burst.  Then all the questions flood in and we wonder if we should keep trying.  Old self-doubts stab at our hearts:  Do we really have what it takes?  

Bethel Music's Amanda Cook has crafted hopeful lyrics in her song, "Wonder"

     "...wide eyed and mystified, may we be just like a child, staring at the beauty of our King

     ...You are beautiful in all Your ways..."

I've been singing this song for two weeks now.  Finally, I have to ask myself, do I really believe that God is beautiful in all His ways - in the pain of watching family members wretch under cancer's claw - in the insecurity  of "more month than money" - in the battle to believe that "there's some good left in this world and it's worth fighting for" (credit Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings, but that's another blog for another day!)

Can I see the Lord of all beauty and hope in all the pathways he leads me on?  The bottom line is that I must.  I must, and I really would like to see you do that as well. 

1 Peter 3:15 "...and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you..."  (KJV)

The reason for this hope and the secret of its buoyant life inside the believer's heart is that we can trust that there is an open door into our eternal home with the presence of our King accessible at any time!  Look to Jesus, Who has anchored our hearts to look forward to the resurrected life and sent the Holy Spirit to seal that hope in our hearts everyday.  The Spirit of God Himself leads us personally into constant reflection that we have distinct stories that testify of how God has led us through battles and made our songs sweeter through the struggles.  Therefore, who can argue with you about the hope in your heart that is actually founded upon the evidence that God's strong hand has led you through your storms?

Be ready when they ask, "How did you come upon this hope?"  "What does it consist of?"  "What is the key to me getting the same hope in my life?"

Be encouraged to stay "wide eyed and mystified" and full of hope as you expect the God of the unexpected to be His beautiful self in all the paths He leads you down.

Harps of Hope

Walking out the doors of church to the car yesterday, I heard someone singing and looked to see, Josh, the pastor's youngest son tossing things into his seat as he was getting into his car to leave.  Our church shares a common parking lot with local businesses that are open seven days a week so I'm not the only one who heard Josh, the songbird...and he seemed totally oblivious to any of us.  He's one of those Tigger personality types with a huge, bright smile and he bounces around with so much life and energy, the epitome of the joy of the Lord.  

"Why am I not singing?" I thought. I was definitely happy and blessed, two amazing women had prayed for me and the Pastor's teaching was one of the most memorable analogies I'd every heard: Lessons from the Vineyard.  Did I check my harp at the door before leaving and suddenly stop the wells of gratitude from gushing out like Josh's?

I want to carry the continual fragrance of that awesome fellowship time on into my week;  I know I'm going to need it and I know people around me would be encouraged; what better way to stir up that fragrance than by singing some of the worship songs? (At least humming them.)  

But it can be like digging for a well in the drought-parched desert land sometimes, can't it?  Once we're out in the business of the week and chasing ourselves in our schedules, who can remember what we even sang during a worship service (unless you can YouTube or Vimeo it up).  Do you feel like you can sing out loud despite the world spinning around you in all of it's craziness?

I imagine that's what the captives felt when Psalm 137 was written:

     1  Alongside Babylon's rivers we sat on the banks; we cried and cried, remembering the good old days in Zion. 2  Alongside the quaking aspens we stacked our unplayed harps; 3  That's where our captors demanded songs, sarcastic and mocking: "Sing us a happy Zion song!" 4  Oh, how could we ever sing God's song in this wasteland?  (Message)

Can you identify with that sentiment?  I can. 

Then, we have to remember what we talked about last week...how Jeremiah made himself "recall things in his mind" and stir up the residual hope that God could and would continue to "show up and show out" in his life.

It is in days like these present times that each of us have to purpose to ponder again personal victories and intentionally revisit days of past experiences with Jesus Christ - our Victory in tribulations. 

Paul and Silas stirred their hearts with hope by singing...Hannah sang out in her joy over her son, Samuel...Debra's song of victory over the fierce enemy rang out...

Jason Upton asks, in his song, "A Hammer And An Awkward Nail," did you ever get tired and want to change the rules, Jesus?  Now, if anyone felt the pressure that tries to squeeze all joy and hope out of him, it was Jesus.  But what did He do just before He was called to pour out all of His life and see His soul and body broken for all of our redemption?

He sang a song with those most precious to Him. (Matthew 26:30)  He helped them "pick up their harps" and reinforce their souls in the ways that God was unleashing the Kingdom of Heaven's power for all of mankind through His Son on that Passover.
 
 Thank You, Jesus for singing over us.  Zephaniah 3:17 "17 The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing"  (KJV)

Will you pass me my harp, please?





 

Backing Into Hope

To be able to read is such a gift!  Normally, as children, we are taught to recognize little symbols on a page (or monitor or screen or ...) and associate meanings with them.  We learn to recall what we've learned by practice, repetition, and attaching mental pictures to the symbols.
 To me, language is so full of layers of meaning, depth, and seems so colorful, especially the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible.  God is really good at painting word pictures for us so His concepts are clarified to our hearts and minds and we are able to really "see" what He is saying.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." RSV

We see in this scripture the Hebrew word-picture of God's expected end for each of us.  Picture with me this:

     A man is rowing a boat with his back towards the bow.  He is rowing forward but he is 
     sitting in the boat backward, unable to see what is ahead.  He is literally BACKING INTO 
     HIS FUTURE!

God has already gone before him/us (somewhere in God's eternity past time frame) and laid out our future.  As a loving Father, he helps us along by giving us glimpses of it; think about your hopes, aspirations, day dreams and visions.  Think about sitting early in the morning with a cup of coffee or tea and meditating on a scripture or a thought that has been tumbling around in your heart.  When you get one of those glimpses catch a hold of it and see if it is something you can build upon to move toward your future.

As we are backing our boat into our future we have to, at the same time, have it moored for safety.  We have the security of anchoring our hearts to Jesus' steadfast heart along the journey through this present age's treacherous waters.  There is so much unleashed on us that it is not hard to imagine what the Lord was referring to when He stated that in the last days men's hearts could fail them in fear.  Luke 21:26 "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." KJV

In the hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," Robert Robinson penned the words for us:  "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love..."

 The prophet Jeremiah felt like his heart was failing him, like he was drifting out of the careful security of the watchful Father's eye; he felt like he had a target painted on his back!  Have you ever felt like you were a walking target in someone's game of yard darts? (I know, it's an outlawed game.)  He felt like he was rowing backward, alright, but all he could focus on was what lay behind him:  a trail of tattered emotions, threats from the community and the administration, torn relationships, scars and broken dreams were scattered across the path he had been walking.  Can you relate?

     Lamentations 3:12-13, 18  "He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.  
     He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. (Pierced my loins.)  
     And I said, "My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD."

But let's look at what happens in good ole verse 21: "This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope."  He remembered in humble thanksgiving what God had spared him from and the daily mercies and benefits of living life "under the shadow of the Almighty." (Psalm 91:1 KJV)  Jeremiah made his mind call upon all the word pictures that God had helped him store in his heart;  we see the cloud begin to dissipate and hope arise!
 









     

Deposits of Hope

In September of 2007, in the moments between waking up and coming out of dreams, I heard the still small voice of the Spirit of God say,

     "Treasure is in the deepest place, the richest place   -   the human soul."

 With that statement my mind flooded with images of the mineral veins of the earth, solid streams of gold and silver, precious deposits woven between layers of granite according to the blueprints of the Creator.  And then in my mind's eye those deposits became the shimmery strands of Heaven's golden revelations of the hopes, dreams, visions, illuminations in the deep foundations of the spirit of man that guide our souls onto the paths of goodness that God has paved before us.  It's seems that the more we dig and the deeper we go, the better we can see our way along the path.

Proverbs 4:18  "But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day."

It's an oxymoron to say that we have to dig deep to see the sun shine brighter but that is what really happens when the life-stream from a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ is constantly cultivated in our hearts.  We open our heart to the deposits made by the Holy Spirit into our own spirit and with determined hope we dig for that gold, and then as we are digging the revelation hits our heart and the eyes of our understanding "get it."  With the treasure of that new-found wisdom deep inside of us we can walk out our growing faith!  Revelation of that Living Word brings us to transformation that we can then live out.  The treasures deposited deep inside become visible faith to live by, grow by, and shine out to others, giving them hope!

More Room For Your Hope

We talked about freeing our hearts up a little to make more room for the hope that God wants to give us.  I like the analogy that our hearts are like gardens, where living things thrive:
     
     Isaiah 58:11 ..."and thou shalt be like a watered garden..."    KJV

     Isaiah 61:3 ..."the planting of the LORD..."    KJV

The Lord wants to plant where He knows He will get a return on His investment, on His deposits of divine hope; the return He wants is our attention, our hearts.

 Your ideal garden may not look like mine - your heart doesn't look like mine.  The "planting of the Lord" above in Isaiah 61 is specifically talking about how God can make a hopeless life become like an awe-inspiring forest of strong, towering trees that stir anyone who visits that forest to glorify God.  Now that's a garden!  Your heart in this analogy may look like a meticulously pruned topiary garden or a vista of busy daisies in a wild field, bobbing their heads in the afternoon breeze.  Your heart may joy in the rolling view of islands of Queen Anne's lace and bachelor's buttons clinging to the heels of the Blue Ridge; what about standing in one of God's lichen covered rock gardens high atop Cloud Peak?

Don't try to plant your hopes in someone else's garden.  After nine years of working in a ministry under some really talented and anointed people, I was told by one of the leaders, "You have lost your vision."  I translated that as, I have lost my hope!  These were very strong and charismatic personalities whose "gardens" had overtaken my own and I had allowed it, like kudzu (if you're from the South you know what I'm talking about) covering an entire hillside, becoming a dense canopy over everything that was originally visible.

I had to find the hopes that the Lord had spent years cultivating into my heart as I made room through exchanging my stuff for His. God has specific hopes to plant in each one of us.  I had to allow Him to help me regain the vision of my God-given original hopes - He helps us get down to the bedrock foundation in cases like this. 

A young man told my husband, Terry, and I about how he had lost everything and almost had a breakdown; he was really suffering financially, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually.  He blasted out question after question to God:  "Why, God, why?"
...until he was on the ground and he realized he still had his foundation.  He still had hope of something to build upon or to re-build upon.  He had/has the living foundation of the hope that God will bring him to a place of stability and contentment.

That young man realized that he couldn't rebuild on a foundation using the plumb line of self!

Wow, that conversation was a spark of hope!

Make Room for Hope

My heart started out like yours.......
     an unconquered wilderness.

It was intended to be a Spirit house - to be like Eden, "the planting of the Lord," a "well watered garden" full of delights, orderly, colorfully and logically planned, planted without chaotic over growths of weeds and intruding vines.
 Our hearts have such capacity to become holding tanks of beauty that can exude and pour out over our world to transform the hopelessness into something positive and rock-solid to hold on to. All we have to do is decide whether or not we'll allow it. 

It is time for hope!  

It is time to clean out the heart tank - exchange what's in there for what can be in there.
Exchange is such an exercise of freedom. The more we are willing to exercise exchanging "our stuff" for "God's stuff" the more our heart's capacity will enlarge for things that we could never imagine. 

1 Corinthians 2:9 "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (KJV)

I'd like to quote Michael Card's "The Things We Leave Behind"
    "People left things behind after they encountered Jesus; the woman at the well left her      water jars, the son of the widow of Nain left his coffin, Simon and the other fishermen left their boats and nets; 
I wonder what I have left behind for His sake?
With each thing left behind, we leave a small piece of ourselves, because a possession 
isn't a little something you own, as much as something that owns a little bit of you.
We leave behind a part of our old self, our old man. (our old habits, old ways of reacting, old
beliefs that we mold the rest of ourselves around....slipping back into our old same-old-
same-old...  my thoughts) 

     In return for whatever small thing we discard Jesus gives us a part of Himself in 
     exchange.

    With Him is great freedom from those things we leave behind, freedom from that greatest
    self-possessing possession, our "self."

Why am I holding onto sooooo much? 

Fear of losing out.

You know, children trust with such abandonment because they have no concept of losing out. They open their little hands and hearts. Their little hearts, I believe, are so much bigger than ours as adults! If we could really see their hearts the way Father God does, it would look like they had an ocean of trust inside of them. How could that be possible?

Thomas Williams composed the hymn, "O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus." It's rolling lyrics say of His love:
     .....vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
    Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me...

Now that is the kind of bountiful heart-filling, heart-healing, heart-freeing exchange that can wash out hopelessness and flood instead with resolve toward a positive outlook.