I have hope again! :o) Thank you all for praying, for real. One of the next few days after I wrote my previous post, I had a chance to sit in Starbucks, pray, and think. Here are snippets of things I was pondering in my journal. I had just seen some poetry written on a piece of Starbuck’s art on the wall and it inspired me:
“There’s hope. I see glimmers of it everywhere, even in the darkest places. I’ve seen it in the sweet smiles of the prostitutes I’ve chatted with…
The exciting truth with this is that God is everywhere. Psalm 139:7 says,
“If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths You are there.”
I love that about the God I serve! He doesn’t leave anyone out. He loves the victim, but also loves the perpetrator! There’s nowhere we can go, nothing we can do to separate us from His love.
There’s this song that India Arie sings called “There’s Hope” and it’s been encouraging to me. One line of the song is talking about all the evil says, “let it and it’ll drive you crazy.” I was letting it and it was driving me crazy. I had been sad, angry, and frustrated, all valid emotions in response to what I’d seen, but I didn’t want to live in those emotions. I’d rather look for glimmers of hope. The quote on the NightLight website by Eleanor Rosevelt seems to make more sense to me now, “I’d rather light a candle than curse the darkness.”
…but how do we move forward? I think the answer is to look towards the light and help to fan the flame with love! God’s already caring for people, but maybe He’s also waiting for us to be a part in spreading the light. I really think this is what Jesus is talking about when He says, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6). The people He created living out a life of faith, hope, and love.
After this year, I’ve had lots of opportunities to learn about how to make a difference in the World. That’s one of the reasons I came on this trip. What I’ve discovered is that the biggest part of it is loving whoever crosses your path! I think I’ve said it before, but it’s your family, your co-workers, your neighbors, and the children in Africa that you hear need food and clean water. We all can do that through God’s strength.
After going through this struggle, I think I’m more thankful for the glimmers. In the chorus of that same song, India says, “There’s hope, it doesn’t cost a thing to smile, you don’t have to pay to laugh, you better thank God for that.”
Amen sister.
