Hoping for miracles

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”  Romans 5:5 NIV

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.”  Hebrews 6:19 NIV

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”  Romans 12:12 NIV

     Unless you are indeed a hermit living under a rock that has central heat, your fanny is freezing and you are tired of it.  I have always thought that I will have some questions for God.  On the topic of a complete absence of warmth, maybe a simple “What’s the hecking heck?”   

     Our son has many interesting habits, one of which is getting up around 4:00 am on home days, usually weekends.  The young man loves a good home day.  But, if he goes to bed thinking he is off to WeKan the next morning, he only drags himself out of bed with “encouragement”.  So, we had two snow days to replace the first two days back this week.  It was so cold when he woke up to the news of a second unannounced snow day he actually smiled and went back to his room.

     I remembered a time this week when God showed up with a miracle of sorts.  Our daughter Jordyn was in middle school and as we were leaving church the day before a return from Christmas break.  She stopped to have a conversation with our pastor’s wife Debbie, who happened to be a middle school teacher.  The two of them had a little prayer meeting right there in the hallway on a day when neither wore a coat to church because it was warm enough they did not need one.  They enthusiastically prayed for a snow day to extend break.  We drove home from church in sunshine with a 10 day forecast void of winter weather.  We had four consecutive snow days.  For the rest of her life, our daughter never had a prayer request she did not think God would answer.

     That same anticipation should happen more often for me.  There are people everywhere who need it.  I found myself thinking about people in my life this week and realized I have a pretty good list of people waiting for things to happen in their favor in every area from physical healing to simple contentment.  I let the actual struggle sort of become an item on a prayer list I keep. 

     I started a written prayer journal a long time ago.  At the time I started doing it because I had a mental  list of things and people I prayed for, and I ended up doing all the talking.  A list isn’t wrong, I think I should be quiet to listen for the chance to hear from God.   But I think I sometimes let the enthusiastic prayer of a believer be replaced by the efficiency of a list. 

     A news report was on TV today about a 13-year-old in Gaza who has recently lost both parents to war.  He is now the oldest of 8 siblings living in a tent, who all rely on him for food and shelter.  Hope did not really come across in the story, but it is not hopeless.  I also just got a text from a friend who has a relative involved in a hot air balloon accident with multiple fatalities and horrific injuries that has been on national news lately.  The people impacted by that accident reaches all over our country and also into our friends life here.  The injuries are indescribable.  It sounds hopeless.  But it is not hopeless.

How much hope am I infusing into my daily concerns?  If I limit my mind to what I can conceive, not much.

Do you find yourself hearing bad news and not knowing how to respond?

Challenge:  Remembering that hope is indeed the anchor for my soul.  If I am not enthusiastically holding on to that, what am I holding on to?

Rick Claiborn