Never Be Without Hope

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 44-46.

Opening Thought: I took a few days off from Nick Vujicic’s book to allow my spirit to settle a bit. It had been a few long days with our son Ty, who is going through the roller coaster of teething. When I get tired I often move from a reading devotional time, to driving in my car, putting on some inspirational music or sermons and just sitting and listening, letting the analytical part of myself fall to the side. Returning to Nick’s book – we’re now on devotion 14 – Never Be Without Hope. As by two weeks into this devotion, I think it is safe to say that the underlining theme is hope. Today reading from Limitless is positioned around the idea that with hope we can rise beyond our circumstances and stations in life. I truly believe this is true. I have come to know many people who have done just that. Sometimes it is a grand rising, like a rags to riches, but more often than not it is people rising beyond their fears and anxieties.        

The devotional begins with: 
1 Samuel 2:6-8

The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up.
He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
to set them among princes
And makes them inherit the throne of glory.

Second Thought: I often wonder to what purpose life holds; I think many people do. Christianity offers a metaphysical theology of how it works. (God forms existence, creates the world and humans and impedes free will on humanity – humanity uses that will to define truth for themselves, thus rejecting God, then God must correct the issue within the time and space of human existence – through the logos (Christ Jesus). Keep in mind that is two thousand years of knowledge and tradition crammed into a sentence written way too early in the morning – so it’s missing a few details, ha ha.) But what is the purpose of the whole creation in the first place. Does God create out of joy, could God have not created, is creating in God’s nature like our impulse to breathe, thus God would be bound to create. Has God created other universes beyond our own, maybe an infinite universe, and do these universes serve a purpose other than just existing? And here is the big one, the question everyone asks, even if they haven’t asked the others à HOW DO I FIT INTO ALL OF THIS? When we see God utilizing people, giving hope to the and allowing them to be raised up, and in turn they become a beacon of hope, why do that? – There is the short term answer, that hope can inspire in other the same pursuit, but what about grand picture, what about the cosmic position, what does us becoming hopeful relate the wider existence?      

Continual Work: I believe hope in a way in the umbrella term for our most divine-like human instinct. I am going to take you on a bit of a ramble this morning apparently, but I want everyone to think about how we make a change or action. We take our thoughts, beliefs, and experiences and process them into actions, which manipulates our realities. For example, if I see a homeless person on the street begging, I first see the event happening, my conscience tells me there is something wrong à a person should not be going hungry and homeless. Now I could very well ignore this tickle in my consciousness and pass by and ignore their cry for help (which I would likely do if I did not have a belief in the inherent value and dignity of human life, and believe that I am called in faith to care for the poor), but my awareness of trouble triggers hope, as a result I think about what I can do, so I look for a way to help the person, I may offer money, food, clothing, sleeping bag, or offer numbers of resources to support them. My experience of something negative challenged my instinct for hope and as a result something changes, a man who might have otherwise gone without eating, eats. Hope is the impulse to create and recreate, it is our image of God pouring out of us.

Hope, I think, is a natural human instinct, which our society otherwise tries to stamp out. When you have hope, then you do not need to buy your happiness. Hope is like an impulse to mutual humane support, if we actually lived that way there would be no hope for capitalistic structures, well at least not in the same sense as we experience now. So, if my hope can move me to change the reality for a person I encounter, it can have the same impact on myself. Not that I want to solely focus on myself, but it is much easier to utilize your hope, if you yourself are not feeling hopeless.         

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I had a cool experience this passed few days! Something that has challenged me, in a great way, I won’t get into detail but if you know me in everyday life, feel free to ask me about it. But I want to keep hope alive and show other that it is okay to have hope, not only that, it should be had.  

Scripture time: 1 Samuel 2 1:11   

I find in my new parent sleepiness I spend a lot of time listening to music. I always have but when I'm too tired to do anything, I can always sink into music. The scripture reading from today comes from a poetic song. It speaks to the glory of God. I find it funny when I was younger, I despised Christian music, it was only arrogance that caused this disposition. I think the arrogance came from my upbringing – my family was very academic in many ways, to approach God was about diving into study, which is something I still love to do, so when I saw people reaching into God through music, it seemed to simple to be true. But as I get older, the more I realized that sometimes the simplest approach is best, and now more and more I find myself listening to Christian music of all forms. Which make sense, to me faith, hope and love are so vitally important I would die for them, why would I not want the soundtrack to my life also be riddled with the wonderings, excitements and testimonials of my sisters and brothers in Christ.       

Prayer Time: Song of my Heart – sing to me the glory that is Your being, let that inspire in me hope, pull me to the truest instinct for a follower of your son Christ Jesus. 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:  A friend of mine share this song with me, it is a song about the Gospel, here are the lyrics.

Splinters – by Sixteen Horsepower

Self sent a twister
A tearin' after me
Gonna bust my house to splinters
An take all that's dear to me

You say you saw it comin' yeah
But still you did not flee
I was too weak I couldn't move
Held by growth of a tree

An yes I fell upon that rock
I did not die just badly broken
An in time my healing it will come
By the words that He has spoken
Oh yeah
I fell upon that rock

Who is it now that loves you
Strait in the front door
An crooked out the back
What is it now you're a slave to
On your knees out in your shack
Oh yeah
I fell upon that rock

He is beyond the shadow
Of your doubt and mine
He is no man's opinion
He is truth divine

Self sent a twister
A tearin' after me
Done bust my house to splinters yeah
An took all that's dear to me yeah
Come on

Who is it now that loves…