Hope

Another focus of Chapter 6 in Me, Myself, and Lies is Hope. Sometimes I have trouble comprehending abstract terms. I am more of a concrete type of girl. I like to be able to see something or taste it or hear it or touch it. I can't 'see' Hope---or Faith--or Grace--or Mercy. All of those are difficult for me to comprehend. But Jennifer tries in Chapter 6!

At the beginning of the chapter she compares Hope to Fear and Despair. Oh dear. More abstract terms to comprehend.

As she says - We can't let fear overcome us. We can't allow despair to intimidate us, to shake us. This makes a little sense to me. Right now, this summer, I am fearful of my summer slipping away from me, of not enjoying life, of focusing too much of the negativity of my mother, and of letting go of material objects that I will wish later I had kept. The despair comes in because I feel so overwhelmed that sometimes I just break down in tears.  I am  trying to clean out my Thought Closet of Mom-isms, but sometimes the Mom-isms creep back in.  That is where the despair comes in.

Jennifer writes "Hope anchors us because it provides spiritual grounding. Hope brings stability to every part of our being: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual (Oh...the wobbly table - my comment). It's something steady to hold onto when fear and despair rock our world. We speak the language of hope when we tell our souls to look up."

There is my needed concrete image. The four legs of the table. Ahhh...I can do that. When I steady the legs of the table, then I have hope. Change that to AS I steady the legs of the table, I have hope.

More importantly is the last sentence of that passage, isn't it? When we tell our souls to look up, we depend on the power of God. When we turn our problems over to God. When anything we fear or our despair is shuttled over to God's domain.

Also from page 106, "Hope is lost when we focus only on our own problems. But choosing hope widens our perspective." And later...."Difficulties can look awfully big, and they will try to stare you down and force you to despair, but you don't have to let them." A HA! There you go! All of the difficulties I feel I am facing with cleaning out the house, deciding what to put into the auction, making all the trips back and forth between our house in Indiana and her house in Ohio---all of that seems enormous to me. And yes, I feel like I am being forced into despair, but I don't have to do that. Why?

Because God is bigger than my problem. Not only that, God is bigger than my perception of my problem. I must remember that I have placed my trust in the Lord, that He is in control, that I can rest in Him rather than wrestle with issues that can try to control me. They can't. Because I trust Him. I have hope that His will WILL be done.

 

Hope will ground me. Hope will anchor me. Hope will make me unshakeable. Hope will sustain me.

 

Side note:  As I was looking for the image I added above, I came across this.  We have been struggling a little with Mom's ability to tell the truth, since she changed factual information to suit the situation or embellished an event to the point that it didn't even resemble the actual occurrence.  This saying is perfect and reflects what Gary has said about Mom for many years:

 

 

 

Sad, but true.