September 14th, 2022

by | Sep 14, 2022 | PS from PS | 0 comments

ps from ps: What does “hope” look like?  

It’s a word we often, but tangibly, what does it look like?

My good friend from our old days at Resurrection Lutheran, Mike Saxon, will be singing at St. Paul’s this Sunday.  (He’s in town and I basically guilted him into it.). The song he picked is called: “Hope in front of me.”  You can listen to it by clicking HERE.  I hadn’t heard it before but the words and visual images were striking to me.  They represented a lot of feelings that travel through my head, and maybe yours quite often.

Trigger warning: they are tough images to watch because for many of us, negative feelings are just under the surface of our everydayness.  We pull routines together to keep everything together.  We pull away from deeper conversations so as to not strike a nerve.  We move right to the edge of being vulnerable, and then we step back because it’s safer.

Because maybe, we lose sight of what hope looks like.

One of our lessons for this week come from 1 Timothy 2:1 – “First of all, then, I urge you that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for EVERYONE….”  Everyone.  The description of this whole lesson in the bulletin will say: “The church’s focused prayer for others is an expression of the single-minded passion God has toward us in Jesus.”

Single-minded passion.  Prayer for everyone.  The gift of Jesus for me…with all my self-doubt, negative thoughts and general messiness.  

And as I start to remember those things, hope starts to take shape.

When I pray in church with others on the journey – hope takes shape.

When I have the hard conversations with people and realize I’m not alone – hope takes shape.

When I read the stories of Jesus purpose and passion for me – hope takes shape.

Let me encourage you to grab hold of that hope.  Let me invite you to start to give it shape in your dailyness.  And if you are in a place to, let me plead with you to share that hope with those around you through your presence and prayer.

And let hope take shape!

Lord, help me to see hope’s shape.  Amen

Be well, safe and blessed…and Go Bills,
ps