How do we encourage and spread hope?
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How do we encourage and spread hope?
Today is the day. Election day.
There may be more uncertainty than people would like as we pass through this week.
And when one party and their supporters win, no matter which party it is, the other half of our nation may feel more fear and dismay for our future.
Perhaps our need is for comfort and hope.
FOR DISCUSSION: HOW ARE YOU MANAGING TO ENCOURAGE AND SPREAD HOPE FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS THIS WEEK?
For me, I spent some time looking at some scriptures and thinking more big picture. I thought maybe it would be helpful to be reminded of the words left to us over thousands of years by people in hard times who have found comfort and hope in God. So I prepared the below post and have shared it in a number of ways. I AM SURE THERE ARE MORE AND BETTER WAYS THEN THIS SMALL GESTURE, SO PLEASE SHARE WHAT YOU ARE DOING OR EXPERIENCING.
Here is my meditation:
In the oldest Biblical book, Job, after all that befell him, acknowledges that God’s purpose prevails:
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
People have read this Psalm for three thousand years:
“God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.” (Psalm 46:1-2)
Two thousand years ago, Paul wrote in the book of Romans about the inability of trouble and calamity to impact God’s love for us:
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? … No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (Romans 8:35, 37)
Even our worries and our fears about the future cannot separate us from God’s love:
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow…will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39)
We need not fear because our hope for the future is in Christ Jesus himself:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Yes indeed. Let us comfort one another with these words.
Rev. Dr. James Milley
Executive DirectorBridgesUS
466 Foothill Blvd #320
La Canada, CA 91011Zoom Room: 818 299 7622
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4 Replies
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I have listened to Dvorak’s 9th “From the New World” Symphony, letting the Second Movement soothe me, and I have been particularly interactive with others in a positive way — cooking lunch for the woman who hadn’t eaten in 24 hours after falling while visiting a cemetary, and making sure her Bible was in reach. This is as fraught an election as I have ever seen, and my first politial memory is election night, 1944 (I was small, but paying attention). May today’s winners not seek revenge on or feel disdain toward the losers, and may the losers accept the judgment of voters with humility, not anger. The Bible verses you’ve chosen, Jim, are a salve on our self-inflicted, short-sighted, misery.
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Larry, I noticed how you spread hope through actions. You don’t just share words. You do things that help people, things that they are thinking about and want to have done, and not something you thought up that they might want.
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I helped out a friend by helping her get her ballot. It was also an opportunity to disciple to her. We talked about her family dynamics and ways to improve their relationship.
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I appreciate how you describe that one activity leads to one conversation and then another. When we join people in their world and help them in their life situation, we have opportunities for conversations that would not happen in programatized group activities.
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