In roughly one month's time I will embark on the newest chapter in my life.
A new neighborhood.
A new job.
A new community of people.
A new church.
Certainly that's enough material for God to do some major work in my life. Certainly that's enough material for me to sit down and just pray. And pray I most certainly have. What is ahead of me is simply unknown. I have always been a dreamer and a planner. This time around is going to be different. The plan...
Well there is no real defined plan.
I will move back to Chicago in March to live with a family that I have known for about 3 months time. While living with them I will turn the page to a new job and leave an old one. From Willow Creek Community Church, the example of mega churches, I will transition onto staff at Sunshine Gospel Ministries, a ministry that has dedicated it's long existence to the renewal of the city starting with the margin. Literally, the opposite image of Willow world that started in Palatine with the question, "how do we reach the rich? Someone needs to church the rich."
I will leave the security of the affluence of my family's home for, quite literally, "the hood."
I have never been attached to a congregation before, but I have also never considered before being part of a church so, well, black.
Excitement doesn't even round the edge of how I am feeling about this next big step. I certainly have questions about this whole thing, but you know, I am going to leave the answering up to when and how God would like to take care of them.
Anxious yet calm...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Get Up God is Moving| Hope
Hope is…
Beauty.
Future.
Reliance.
It’s such a casual word, but like so many words that we toss around it has literally unspeakable, indescribable, context. Hope is grasping at air and relying on the glimmer that something or someone bigger than us is waiting to catch us before we fall too far.
It is my opinion that Hope cannot be defined. It’s just far to abstract for words to bind it to earthly understanding. Hope is set in us. It is deep in our souls. Hope reaches from something so central to what it means to be a creation of God I can only attempt to describe what hope looks like, and at that it may only be of my own imagination.
There is this sense of future, of motion, in the word hope. It is like when we hope we are anticipating something better. That’s another aspect of hope. It’s never about something worse. We hope because there is something better to look forward to, isn’t there? We have an understanding set in us that what is in front of us isn’t right. It isn’t how it can be.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
I wonder if hope is part of the sense of eternity that God has instilled in each of us…
Hope also has this aspect of faith as well. Pastor Ford, this weekend, reminded the congregation that Jesus isn’t just there to guide the blind. We are to put our complete reliance in the power of Christ. I love this aspect of overwhelming reliance.
Psalm 42 is my second favorite Bible passage. The psalmist speaks on the intensity of God’s presence when we place our hope in Him.
Psalm 42:5| Why are you cast down my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again Praise Him, My salvation and my God.
Psalm 42:7| Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves fall over me.
If we put all our hope in Christ we are given a picture of eternity and beauty. Eden.
If we put all our hope in the power of the LORD we can expect to be overtaken by His incredible presence. He protects the weak. He lifts the poor and rejected.
We have every reason in light of the brokenness of the world we live in to put all we are into the hope that Jesus presents humanity.
I pray that you would put your hope in Him. Your (my) Savior and king. Rest in Him. Rely on His awesome power. There you will find strength to overcome, pursue, and run that race set out before us.
Beauty.
Future.
Reliance.
It’s such a casual word, but like so many words that we toss around it has literally unspeakable, indescribable, context. Hope is grasping at air and relying on the glimmer that something or someone bigger than us is waiting to catch us before we fall too far.
It is my opinion that Hope cannot be defined. It’s just far to abstract for words to bind it to earthly understanding. Hope is set in us. It is deep in our souls. Hope reaches from something so central to what it means to be a creation of God I can only attempt to describe what hope looks like, and at that it may only be of my own imagination.
There is this sense of future, of motion, in the word hope. It is like when we hope we are anticipating something better. That’s another aspect of hope. It’s never about something worse. We hope because there is something better to look forward to, isn’t there? We have an understanding set in us that what is in front of us isn’t right. It isn’t how it can be.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
I wonder if hope is part of the sense of eternity that God has instilled in each of us…
Hope also has this aspect of faith as well. Pastor Ford, this weekend, reminded the congregation that Jesus isn’t just there to guide the blind. We are to put our complete reliance in the power of Christ. I love this aspect of overwhelming reliance.
Psalm 42 is my second favorite Bible passage. The psalmist speaks on the intensity of God’s presence when we place our hope in Him.
Psalm 42:5| Why are you cast down my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again Praise Him, My salvation and my God.
Psalm 42:7| Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves fall over me.
If we put all our hope in Christ we are given a picture of eternity and beauty. Eden.
If we put all our hope in the power of the LORD we can expect to be overtaken by His incredible presence. He protects the weak. He lifts the poor and rejected.
We have every reason in light of the brokenness of the world we live in to put all we are into the hope that Jesus presents humanity.
I pray that you would put your hope in Him. Your (my) Savior and king. Rest in Him. Rely on His awesome power. There you will find strength to overcome, pursue, and run that race set out before us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
