Hope

Hope is such a powerful word. President Obama used this word as one of his campaign slogans, it is a keyword in the fight against breast cancer, and 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that it is one of God's most enduring and amazing gifts to us.

Tonight, Kyle and I were watching the news and it was filled with report after depressing report about our failing economy and the huge holes in the stimulus plan that is supposed to fix the dying economy. The next report was about the 58,000 Americans that have lost their jobs in the last two days. Kyle and I just kind of looked at each other and he made the comment that he is so glad that his hope isn't in our government, our President, our economy, or anything else other than Jesus Christ and the love that He has for us. I couldn't agree more, and as I was thinking about all the people that are going through hard times right now and that are stressed because of our economy, or our country's new leadership, or any other multitude of things that people find to worry about, I was heart-broken that not all of those people have the same hope that Kyle and I have.

God can use times like this to draw people closer to Him, and I pray (and I ask you to join with me) that people will realize that regardless of their current economic position, that we all have a God that loves us more than we can possibly imagine and that came to Earth and died for our sins, but was then RESURRECTED, overcoming death and Satan so that we can spend eternity in His presence if we only acknowledge what He has done for us, accept it and turn to Him in repentance. He gives us peace that allows us to look at the current condition of our country and not worry about tomorrow, but to trust that He will provide for us. This is the true meaning of hope, hope that comes from God and allows us the freedom to fully trust in Him.

So I HOPE that you place your hope in the right place when things get rough and when things are going great.

Control

So, last night I went to bed at about 12:30 with the knowledge that in a mere 6 hours I would need to be on my way to Washington so that I could be at work by 7. I've gotten accustomed to having about 6 or 7 hours of sleep (college will do that to you). I'm one of those people that has the wonderful gift that when my head hits the pillow at 12:30, I'm asleep by 12:32. So I'm off to dreamland.

Suddenly my ears are bursting to the sound of a loud chirping (much like that of a giant mutant cricket)! It's WAY too loud to be my alarm telling me that I should be dragging myself out of the bed, but it's so loud that getting out of the bed just kind of happens. Someone in my apartment has pulled the fire alarm. I look out the window and people are standing way too close to the building for it to actually be on fire, so I'm not in a huge rush to grab some clothes and get out, but I start heading that way. Oh, did I mention that it is 4:00 IN THE MORNING!

Taking all of these events into consideration with the sleepy haze over my mind, I decide that the best thing for me to do is get dressed and go ahead to Washington to work really early.

I have taken two naps and I am somewhat normal right now, my sleep schedule is kind of weird, but I was thinking about the events of the pre-dawn morning and I realized that there are some things in life that we cannot control. This really should be no surprise to me, but it makes a wonderful reminder of the truth about control.

So how should I handle a situation like this? During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked the question "which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" As usual, Jesus was right...lol nothing that I could have done this morning would have changed the fact that someone (I don't really even care who) pulled the fire alarm and worrying about it wasn't going to fix anything, so if I'm not supposed to fret (some of you will say that's a Nash county word, and if so, I'm proud..lol), how am I supposed to handle this situation? That's just it, I can't change it so I can't give it head-space (complements of Bobby Garcia). My job is to get dressed, trust the purpose that God has behind making sure I'm awake at 4, and move through the day with a thankful spirit, blessed that there wasn't an actual fire and no one was hurt.