It's Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. and we didn't even realize it until a couple of days ago. You see, we've lost all sense of a calendar. There is no rhythm of the seasons, here. The only seasons are wet and dry and in our area even the dry season has a lot of rain so it's really just rain and more rain! And the sunrise and sunset times vary less than 1/2 hour during the entire year.
Being raised with extreme seasons, in Alaska, this is a difficult adjustment. I now realize that much of an Alaskan's life is spent in anticipation and dread -- anticipating the arrival of the favorite season and dread that it will pass on all too quickly!
So, from our background, Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer and time to plant flowers and gardens. The next anticipation is Summer Solstice and the night-long fishing trips! After that, my mother always says she can smell Fall in the air. Fortunate for her that she likes Fall. :-) Some of us don't like thinking about Fall in June! And the rhythm continues with Labor Day, falling leaves, termination dust on the mountains (that's what Alaskans call the first snows!), ice on the lakes, Winter Solstice, the days "feeling" longer by the end of January, melting snow and emerging mud in March, ice-freed lakes, the hint of pale green that appears on the tree branches in May ... and back again!
It's the sameness of everything here that robs us of any rhythm. Nothing to anticipate and almost nothing to dread.
... and that's what's taught me how very important is one little word -- HOPE! Hope is what gets us out of bed in the morning. It's what drives us to stay late at work. It's what gets us checking the stock market. It's what gets us into the malls in search of the perfect _______ (whatever!). It's what gets us to the gym and gets teams practicing. Something to look forward to ... to dream of ... something that motivates us to stick with it ...
Maybe the sameness of everything here is what causes so many Nigerians to have so little hope.
Today the new President was sworn into office. Same political party. Same leader still behind the scenes -- Obasanjo -- military general in the 60s and 70s, prisoner, emerging leader, president, and now, still, the leader of the PDP -- the controlling party. It's a lot of sameness. With so little hope.
But hope is a peculiar word. It can mean so many things. The best kind of hope is not the "wringing-my-hands-in-fear-that-my-dreams-won't-happen!" The best kind of hope is the confident expectations -- the anticipation that is built on certainty. Just like our certainty that, even with global warming, there will continue to be seasons in Alaska. There's our hope -- our certainty -- that God loves us immensely, that whenever we want to speak to him he is waiting, that he delights in our being delighted, that heaven is real, that as followers of Jesus our eternity has already begun, ... and that the best things on earth won't hold a candle to heaven!
Ted Dekker, in his book The Slumber of Christianity, says "Hope is far more than a flimsy notion. It's the engine of life. ... We humans are built for hope. Without it, we slumber and die. With it, we live and thrive." And check out Romans 5:1-5 "...we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ... and hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
I've been thinking a lot about hope in the past three years or so ...
We can choose hope when we enjoy a fragrant blossom and the fragrance fades ... we could be sad at it's passing or we could smile at the reminder that heaven will be better than everlasting fragrances!
We can choose hope when we're still locked into our camp that strangely resembles a prison (even prisoners get TV and food!) ... we are confident that better days are on their way!
We can choose hope when people disappoint us miserably ... because only in heaven will sin not corrupt humankind and only in heaven will we be unaquainted with disappointment and pain.
Without HOPE, we might as well stay in bed all day. Without hope, we might as well live a decadent life and then die.
With HOPE, we have our mission to still accomplish on earth! With hope, we have heaven to embrace for all eternity!
Wow ... the power of seasons ... the ebb and flow of days and months ... variety ... sorrow and joy ... rhythms of hope.
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2 comments:
Hope. One of my favorite things. We can hope because we can depend on God's promises.
Besides that, just look at anything he's created. There's hope written all over the natural world - right down to a blade of grass.
Today a found a big ole mayfly drowned in the dog's water bowl. I dumped the water down a sink, and the mayfly got caught in the drain. I picked him up gingerly with a tissue and I saw a leg move from one side to another. I thought it was gravity but there it was again - it moved on its own.
I put him in a safe place to dry off, and then, I moved him (with tissue) out to a flower pot where he wouldn't blow away. He stayed there for awhile and hours later he was gone. On his own.
That's my story of hope and optimism for today. That little guy reminded me that when we least expect it - when we're beaten down and drowning - some big bug-loving thing can come along at the right moment. God does it all the time.
Wow, Susan! What a great story ... a great picture of God's mercy to all of us bugs! Unfortunately, we tend to recognize our rescuer about as well as that little ole mayfly knew his!
Thanks for the great hope-infuser!
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