Hope Endured!

Well, in what seems like the blink of an eye, another year has gone by and one more is about to begin. This is traditionally the time to make resolutions. However, I don’t really feel like making any. It’s not that I don’t have goals, wishes, and desires for this year. Tops on the list are hoping the Holy Spirit grows His fruits in me to, at last, turn me into a good mother, wife, friend, sister and in-law, etc. Followed closely by the hope that God would give me a forgiving heart and help me walk closer to Him, and of course, the hope of losing weight! But I don’t want to “officially” make any new year’s resolutions for 2014. I’m just thankful I survived 2013! It’s funny, but that’s pretty much the same sentiment I felt at the end of 2012-beginning of 2013…This is what I wrote back then, as I meditated on the start of a new year:

Last night, as I was laying on the floor next to my younger son’s bed, waiting for his fever to break, staring at the over sized picture of Spiderman glued to the ceiling above his bed, the Lord gave me a word to ponder. The word was “hope.” So as I thought about it, “hoping” the backache I had from laying on the floor would go away as well as my son’s fever, I decided that “hope” was going to be my word for the year. 

Without hope we have nothing. Like the song says, “Everything rides on hope.” Regardless of the circumstances, hope must survive for without it we don’t survive. Hope comes from the Lord. Even though at times the troubles of this life seem overwhelming, hope helps us remember that the God we serve is, indeed, good all the time. Even though He sometimes makes us go through tough storms without commanding them to stop at once; hope reminds us that above the dark clouds, the sky is still blue, and that God delivers us through the storms He appoints for us. True hope keeps us focused on Christ and helps us overcome. I can’t even fathom a life without hope for it is not life at all. 

This morning, as I touched the face of my boy and realized that the fever had lowered, I know “hope” must be my “theme word” for 2013. My hope is in the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth as well as the Designer of the plan for my life, and it is a good plan - a perfect plan.

Reading these words I wrote a year ago caused me to pause for a minute. As I stand at the doorway of another year, I look back and realize that hope did indeed carry me through. Among several other difficult situations, this year I faced a really hard number of months due to a diagnosis of thyroid cancer in May. Tests, surgeries, and treatments have taken a toll on my emotional stability, but hope has remained in me each day. The Lord has showed me His face like never before in His Word and in the people He has surrounded me with to help me through this experience. I cannot be more thankful for His Love and Mercy in this trial. He has remained near and He has helped me realize that the plan He has for me is still a good plan.

His plans for each one of His children are all different. They all include a variety of events and circumstances which vary according to each season of our lives. Some of them are good, even great, and some of them are trying ones that we could do without from our human perspectives. Some plans include seasons of divorce, abuse, addiction, poverty, wealth, travels, beautiful homes, loneliness, abandonment, illness, brokenness, rejoicing... Mine includes thyroid cancer at this point. The plan, however, is still good. It is still better than anything I could have concocted on my own. It is perfect! And the reason it is perfect is because this plan includes me growing closer and closer to My Lord and Savior, and after all, that’s what a good plan is all about.

Tomorrow a new year will dawn on us.  What a great opportunity to think about the inspiration we want us to guide us on the days ahead.  I'll see you tomorrow, then, with the word  that I hope the Holy Spirit will use to keep me focused and carry me through in 2014.

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