Where Hope is Alive

"Direct my footsteps according to Your Word..." - Psalm 119:133

It sits on my kitchen table every day, waiting, as if to announce: "Your day begins here."

Often it does.
But truth be told, not always.

And at the end of those days, I wished I had.

Because whether it's that one,
Or the cool ones with a gazillion language flavorings on my phone, 
It is life to my soul.

And so much more:

A road map.

A fountain of wisdom.

A source of peace and comfort.

A banquet meant to be devoured.

Beautiful in its phrasing.

Raw and honest in its content.

Where men and women unabashedly live their love for God.

Where men and women are unafraid, in their humanity, to yell at God and get angry or frustrated.

And know that when they do, He's still there.

Some pages of the one sitting on my kitchen table are dog-eared, heavily underlined, and dotted with coffee stains.

Some pages are crisp and white, which probably means they are filled with invisible question marks.

Sometimes, its voice is so loud, the letters and phrases explode within.

Sometimes, its voice seems to be speaking to anybody else but me.

Until that day you are reminded one more time that it's not the words, really, anyway.

The power is in the One behind the words.

The One who alone is faithful and true, the God of all comfort and wisdom, the giver of Life;

When all other people and things and stuff in our lives fall short of the mark;

When nothing makes sense, when confusion is everywhere, when all around seems unhinged.
Where hope is always alive...

...Especially that day in the midst of months of darkness that seemed to have no end,
When that Voice that seemed to be speaking to anybody else but you,
Suddenly, spoke so loudly that the letters and phrases on the page exploded within:

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." —Romans 15:13, NIV

A hope that is not wishful thinking but anchored in the only One with a perfect resume;

A hope that is not "out there somewhere: but that becomes as real and as close as your next breath.

The perfect theme song for this wonderful, often-crazy-unpredictable Journey;
The kind of tune that is good to have stuck in your head.

A hope that restores...joy!

And peace.
And trust for putting one foot in front of the other.
Over and over again.

An incomparable kind of hope that makes that which sits on my kitchen table every day

"The best-selling book of non-fiction" of all time.

"Hope is the music of the whole Bible—the heartbeat, the pulse, and the atmosphere of the whole Bible.”

—A.W. Tozer

[Adapted from 2017, 'Theme Music"]

Pressing the Right Buttons

"After all, the gift of language combined with the gift of song was only given to man to let him know that he should praise God with both Word and music..."—Martin Luther 

This seems like a strange prayer to send your way, but here goes:

Let today remind you that the good religious, formulaic boxes we are prone to make are continually being blown apart by an uncontainable, awesome God…

...“You need to start your day, every day, with a quiet time before God.” Probably one of the first and wisest words of counsel every Christ-one received following the moment we said “yes, I believe.” For following well, good habits are good. Guidelines can keep us from wandering off-course. Methods can be really helpful in the madness of life. 

Except on those days when the nice, tidy formulaic box of “If I do this then this will happen”…OK, well, it doesn’t work. When despite all good intentions, your brain is stuck in the fog of that 4 a.m. weird dream, your eyes itch, your mind wanders to the projects of the day demanding attention, and the good words of the Word in that nice, tidy box of a quiet time seem to go in one ear and then disappear into outer space….

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

—Isaiah 55:9, NIV

…Good habits, remember, are good. And so on one quiet time “doesn’t work” morning this week, when a cold rain did nothing to lighten the atmosphere, I pulled over to the favorite spot for a coffee for the commute. Coffee always helps. Not today. And so, before pulling out onto the highway to the 9-5, I turned on the radio and started pressing all of the presets looking for relief of some kind. But even the presets were not in the mood:

Instead of something soothing, the classical station happened to be playing a symphony so loud and chaotic it would make you want to drive into a ditch.

Let’s check the news. station…“Bad. Bad. That’s bad, too. Really bad.”

OK, how about the usually upbeat station with the latest traffic updates…”Don’t go there. What a mess. If you don’t have to be on the road today, stay home.” (Kind of liked that idea.)

The sports station should have been basking in the afterglow of the Super Bowl, but instead it was complaining about something or another that didn’t really matter…”wah, wah, wah…”

Surely, the station that broadcasts messages of faith would be different. But on this day, the speaker mumbled in uninspiring monotone as if the God we serve and Love is totally boring.

Only one other option. Which maybe should have been the first: Plug in the USB and put on some music that praises God, that inspires worship, that maybe, just maybe, would speak truth and refreshing into a weary, boxed-in soul…

“…David took a harp and played it with his hand; so Saul would be refreshed and be well…”—1 Samuel 16:23, Amplified

While the circumstances that brought on Saul’s torment are not to be envied (see 1 Samuel 15-16), the promise of the songs of the Lord played to a weary, boxed-in-devotions heart, is unshakeable and undefeated. And as if on cue, as Truth and blessed assurance broke through once more, the atmosphere within the car seemed to change. The sun seemed to come out even while it was still raining. More importantly, the weary, boxed-in “gotta do the quiet time thing the same way every day” heart was refreshed and awakened once more in Love.

It reminded me that three times in the past couple of weeks when praying for men and women who were weary of heart in their own way, they all said the same thing: “When I turned on the praise and let the truth sink in, everything changed. God met me. That’s what got me through.”

Because sometimes, God would rather break out of our preconceived “do it this way” box of discipleship and meet us at our point of need instead. To reach us and grab hold of us through the back door so that we can hear His voice. And often, it is here where that Word that only hours ago seemed to disappear into outer space suddenly comes alive while you’re on your way through the day, encountering people and situations where it is needed most.

Shockingly, out of the box. Perhaps as God intended it all along...

...Sometimes you just have to press the right button.