Hope for the Impossible

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 30-32.

Opening Thought: Today’s devotional begins with a Roman’s passage, one of the verses says this, ‘tribulations produce perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character hope.’ If God grants us hope in His grace through the Holy Spirit, but we must persevere through our trials and tribulations, that means we must work hard through it. And what ties it together is faith. If God’s trinity in character is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer – then if humanity had a trinity which echoed back, I would say it would be Grace, Work and Faith. Hope is like the binding agent that keeps the Grace we receive, the Work we do and the Faith we hold moving together.   

The devotional begins with: 
Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produce perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. How hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out I our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Second Thought: The devotional reading today uses a story of tragedy to remind us that hope can deliver good things. Nick speaks of a story of a child lost in a rubble after an earthquake, and because his mother did not give up hope, they found the child almost a week and a half after the quake. Touching story to say the least, but there is a challenge that many people will immediately get struck with - what about all the people that didn’t survive, what about their families’ hope. I have seen this firsthand, where this question has robbed people of there faith. It ties into a larger philosophical and theological question around evil. It is the traditional problem around evil. If God is all powerful and all good, why do bad things happen? Well as much as I would love to sit here today and play-through all the different explanations to this, I don’t have the time. Though it does sound like fun. Anyways, if we re-frame and instead of asking, why do bad things happen, say instead – bad things happen, so what am I going to do when they do? For me having hope in times of hardship is so important, it pulls you towards positive outcome, if every time something bad happened, we all assumed the worst then maybe this mother would have given up the search for her child, maybe her lack of persistence would have meant no one would have found him. Doesn’t mean it will always work out in our favour, (in the finite sense), it just means you have chosen to hold out for a possibility of something better. The big challenge is moving hope from a feeling towards a state of mind, body and soul.

Continual Work: “Life may not be going well for you now, but as long as you are here, as long as your press forward, anything is possible. Hold on to hope.” These words mark the conclusion of Nick’s devotional, I believe these words, but they are a bit limited for my liking. Specifically, the “not going well for you”, the well in those words have me concerned. To what definition do we hold to the “well”. Is that perfect health, financially successful, popular, and of course no earthquakes. All these things are earthly things, and the hope of God, is a spiritual thing, it is limitless and transcendent, when we make it apart of ourselves, we move it from a feeling to a lifestyle, an internal rhetoric. Let me put it this way, there is an old hymn with the line, and the things of earth will go strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. When we move beyond our earthly definitions of “well” we open ourselves up to a strength and hope like no other. We will use this hope to navigate the earthly situations, i.e., a missing child in an earthquake, but it is so much more than just that.     

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I believe I am often a hopeful guy, but sometimes where I am physically tired, it is more challenging to be. This is not one of the situations where I just need to buck up and be more hopeful. Remember, Grace, Work and Faith – apart of my work duties is to rest. If I need body-care, rest and to snooze, I need to take it.  

Scripture time: Romans 5:6-8   

The verses immediately following the verses noted above are as follows. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.” The hope from God is a hope that is a result of God’s efforts through His son Jesus. This is not a hope that is willy-nilly. When we think about transcendent ideas – hope, peace, joy and love, we often get lost in their abstract notions, but in the case of Christ Jesus there is also a very real and physical manifestation of those ideas in play in the world. It is a complicated thought process with many layers, and you don’t have to try to understand it all, but I encourage a light reflection each day on the event of the cross, what does it mean for you to have hope, peace, joy and love realized through that day. It is the spectrum foundation of the miracles of Easter and Christmas – on those days we feel that hope. At least I hope you do! 

Prayer Time: Spirit - infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, bring your infinite, eternal and unchanging hope into my life, into my family’s life, into the life of my friends, colleagues, acquaintances and to every stranger out there. When I feel that hope working in me, I find peace. I want others to experience this as well. I want others to know the quality of heart I feel radiating from Your Son Jesus, in His name, I pray. Amen.  

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close: I have had this hymn in my head for a little while, I’m sure many of you will know it. I dare you to sing it aloud and proud.

I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river in my soul
I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river
I've got peace like a river in my soul

I've got love like an ocean
I've got love like an ocean
I've got love like an ocean in my soul
I've got love like an ocean
I've got love like an ocean
I've got love like an ocean in my soul

I've got joy like a fountain
I've got joy like a fountain
I've got joy like a fountain in my soul
I've got joy like a fountain
I've got joy like a fountain
I've got joy like a fountain in my soul

I've got peace, love and joy like a river
I've got peace, love and joy like a river
I've got peace, love and joy like a river in my soul
I've got peace, love and joy like a river
I've got peace, love and joy like a river
I've got peace, love and joy like a river in my soul