A Different Kind of Hope: Part Six

 
To start from Part One click here.

I began this series with candles flickering in the light of a MEND service.

And as we draw closer to the end, I find myself thinking of light again.

I closed my talk that evening at MEND by saying...

Hope is a flame that's lit inside us and no amount of darkness can overcome it. 

I imagine each of you also have a dream inside your heart that has flickered.

Yes, we know that feeling...the moment when light almost slips into darkness. But then, a divine spark comes and it is our choice to fan it into flame or let it fade.

A different kind of hope keeps shining no matter what.

Ann Voskamp asks us this week to think of Christ coming.

And as I ponder this, I think about one of His names...Light of the World.

(A little side note...when I went to link this post to Ann's site I found she, too, wrote about light this week. You'll love her words.)

The candles within our hearts don't bear our own light—they bear His.

He came long ago to a manger in Bethlehem. But He also comes again here, now, when our hearts need Him most.

It is not new light that burns within us, brightening the path.

No, the only true Light is the One illuminating all of eternity.

On Christmas, this is what (WHO!) we joyfully celebrate.

Jesus, Light of the World.

Yes, shine in us again.

 

What's one way He has brought hope to your heart this year?

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For each post in this series I'll be giving away a Hope and Encouragement card pack from DaySpring so you can help some hurting hearts. It includes 10 cards (I wrote some of them) and would be worth over $30 if you got them at a store. I'll announce all the winners when the series is done. Just leave a comment on any of the posts—or on more than one for extra entries!

(Subscribers, remember to go to the post to leave your comment. Thanks!)

*This giveaway is done but you can enter a new one and join me in The Rest of Your Story series by clicking here!

 

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A Different Kind of Hope: Part Five

To start from Part One click here.

First of all, THANK YOU from the bottom of my little southern heart for all of your kind words and prayers! Here's a HUG AND A HALF for each of you.

I've recovered quite a bit of my strength and some of my grammar. Oh, and the fridge is fixed! Woo-hoo!

So, let's get back to a different kind of hope.

When I started this little series I thought I'd just share from the talk I gave at MEND. But as you know, we took a little detour with the Pity Party. And I think I'll stay sidetracked for one more day.

You see, first I had the Pity Party and then I almost went on a Guilt Trip.

Because I looked at other blogs, and twitter, and the news, and I thought, "What is the matter with me? How can I be feeling sorry for myself when everyone else in the whole world has it worse than I do?"

You know what I'm talking about, don't you?

So I started packing my bags for the Guilt Trip—a little shame, a couple of not-nice remarks about my selfishness, a stack of sighs a mile high.

BUT THEN a lesson I learned from a very wise professor I had in grad school came back to me. Dr. Gary Oliver, who taught Christian Foundations in Counseling, told us (Holley translation)...

"Do not compare your pain with others. The worst pain you will ever feel is your own. That does not mean you are selfish—that means you are human."

Each heart knows its own bitterness. Proverbs 14:10

Dr. Oliver has lost a wife and son in the last few years as well as faced cancer. If anyone has the right to say, "My pain is bigger than your pain" it's him. His point was that when it comes to pain—it's far better to share than compare.

Turns out it works a whole lot better for us and everyone else to just say, "Yep, had a stinky day/week/decade." Then we can get on with healing and helping rather then denying ourselves right into exhaustion.

So I'm giving you an early Christmas gift.

Permission.

Permission to be honest about what's not so great in your life right now. Not permission to wallow, mind you—but permission to acknowledge, throw the Pity Party and then get on with the real party of life.

Do I still go on Guilt Trips? Yes, ma'am. I just try to turn the car around a little faster and go to, oh, Dallas instead of Antartica. Sometimes it even works!

A different kind of hope shares rather than compares.

So if you find yourself saying, "I'm fine" when you're not, then there's something I want you to do. (Warning: it's a little odd but you should be used to that from me by now.)

Picture me handing you a big shiny box with a big fluffy bow with a big fat tag that says PERMISSION right across the front.

Then imagine me leaning in and whispering with a smile, "Merry Christmas...I think Someone Who Really Loves You wants you to have this too."

 

p.s. About thirty seconds after I finished writing this, I got a call that my husband had been in an accident—another car hit him from behind. So we spent the evening in the ER but he's home with just whiplash and I'm so grateful! I don't know what's going on lately, y'all, but please keep those prayers coming! And, YES, I had another cookie...

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For each post in this series I'll be giving away a Hope and Encouragement card pack from DaySpring so you can help some hurting hearts. It includes 10 cards (I wrote some of them) and would be worth over $30 if you got them at a store. I'll announce all the winners when the series is done. Just leave a comment on any of the posts—or on more than one for extra entries!

(Subscribers, remember to go to the post to leave your comment. Thanks!)

*This giveaway is done but you can enter a new one and join me in The Rest of Your Story series by clicking here!

 

Subscribe by Email

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A Different Kind of Hope: Part Four

To start from Part One click here.

Okay, friends, I'm going to have to interrupt this little series for a party.

A pity party.

Because I'm sick for the fourth day in a row. Our refrigerator broke and every non-perishable item I own is in a cooler on the back porch. AND my entire family is arriving here on Friday.

My house looks like a war zone covered in tissue bombs. I'm eating the weirdest stuff you can imagine based on what I think will thaw first. AND my Christmas shopping is not done.

I scared the living daylights out of the refrigerator repair man because I have not worn make-up in four days. Let's not talk about how many showers I've had in that time period. AND my dog has even started sleeping outside.

It's one of THOSE weeks.

Yes and amen.

So I sat down to write another post and I thought of some really nice, spiritual things to say. And I would mean them, I really would.

But you know, I've learned it's also sorta spiritual to just say, "This week is really stinky and at the moment, so am I. Help me, Jesus, before I eat an entire platter of cookies." (Sugar is bad for your immune system, you know.)

A different kind of hope understands this handy little truth: sometimes you've just got to laugh because life ain't no peach pie after all.

(By the way, if a writer-sort-of-person says "ain't no" then you know things have gotten out of control. The level of disregard for grammar and/or spontaneous use of a regional accent is approximately equal to the level of emotion in his/her life on any given day.)

Now where are those cookies, Y'ALL?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

For each post in this series I'll be giving away a Hope and Encouragement card pack from DaySpring so you can help some hurting hearts. It includes 10 cards (I wrote some of them) and would be worth over $30 if you got them at a store. I'll announce all the winners when the series is done. Just leave a comment on any of the posts—or on more than one for extra entries!

(Subscribers, remember to go to the post to leave your comment. Thanks!)

*This giveaway is done but you can enter a new one and join me in The Rest of Your Story series by clicking here!