My Hope

Where are you in your relationship with Christ this Resurrection Sunday? Are you dining at the Passover supper with Jesus- blissfully unaware of what you’ll soon be called to do? Do you know that something is coming, but you’re focused more on who is sitting where? Are you looking for someone to overturn the oppressive government or do you search for a servant king? Maybe you’re in the garden, fighting to stay awake. You know what you’ve been told to do and yet you struggle to obey. Maybe you’ve seen the innocent mistreated and you react in anger and violence rather than allowing God to bring justice. Perhaps you’ve just experienced the death of your Rabbi, teacher and friend. You don’t know what to do and so you hide from this world and wait until things are clearer. You protect yourself by denying your relationship. Maybe you’ve seen the risen Messiah. You have touched his hands and feet. Now he is telling you that you will suffer the same. Will you accept the ...

Easter is coming up soon and I’m excited to see what this reminder of Christ’s resurrection will bring. I know that Christ lives within me the entire year through, but I feel this time of year is an amazing time of both reflection and renewal of my faith. Perhaps it’s because I was baptized on Maundy Thursday fifteen years ago, but I think it’s more than that. We are reminded during this time that death has no grip on us- that Christ has overcome the grave- and Satan has been defeated. I don’t think this is lost on Satan either, so it’s a time we must be prepared to fight the spiritual battles of this world. I gained a different perspective on Easter eight years ago. I’ve always tried to picture it through Jesus’ vantage point but came to realize how it must have pained God to give up his firstborn son as well. He knew it was coming and he knew the grave could not hold him, and yet death would not Passover His begotten Son as it had the Israelites so many years before. I pos...

The girls have noticed differences between their lives and those of our neighbors. I try not to point certain things out, but address them as they naturally occur and this was one of them. As we were driving to our homeschool group one day, M asked me why we had items that our friends didn’t have. I tried my best to explain that quite simply, I don’t know. I don’t know why we were born into safe and secure homes. I don’t know why we were blessed with the intellectual capabilities to succeed at college. I don’t know why. I have an incomplete picture of things- only God sees the bigger picture. But I shared with the girls part of Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” I explained that we have been given so much- God has been so good to us- we are therefore called to use what we have been entrusted with and give back to others. I felt like a parenting failure when M...

I’ve seen the resiliency in so many of the refugees coming into Clarkston. The pictures and stories of the things they’ve endured don’t always seem to line up with the outer strength they show. How many of us would crumble if our families and towns were completely wiped out? Yet, they find strength in each other. Hospitality is huge in Middle Eastern cultures, and I’m finding I have a lot to learn- both about giving and receiving. I found out last week that I’d (unknowingly) offended someone. My friend, A, had asked last Monday if I’d accompany her and some of her friends to the optometrist in order to help fill out the forms. Besides school work, I’d had no other commitments, so we packed up M’s work and headed out to help. Afterwards we were invited back to their apartment for coffee and tea, but I politely declined. We still had school work that hadn’t gotten finished in the waiting room, dinner to fix, and I was worried that whatever was served might throw off my blood s...

I shared recently that my blood work showed that I’ve been anemic during this pregnancy. I’m thankful for a few things. My numbers were lower than recommended, but not at a dangerous level so I’m praying there will be no effect on the baby. I’m also thankful that I now know why I’ve been so tired lately. I felt bad that Tommy was having to help out with so many things around the house that I thought I should have the energy to do. At least now I know it wasn’t completely in my head. I’ve seen a significant difference in my energy level since starting an iron supplement. I haven’t had to drag myself out of bed each morning and while naps are still welcome, I haven’t felt like I need one at 10 a.m. Just as we can be missing nutrients physically, are we missing necessary nutrients in our spiritual lives? I’ve been thinking about the difference one mineral can make and then last week the pastor preached on almost the same thing. Do we drag through life not even aware that we...

I loved our time back home this Christmas. Most of it was spent with family but we were able to see a few friends too. It was refreshing and relaxing to be surrounded by friends and family who know us so well (and love us anyway). We knew we’d be hitting the ground running once we got back so we found joy in just going with the flow while we had the chance. At least we thought we’d be hitting the ground running. Instead Tommy ended up with strep shortly after we got back, so we quarantined him to the couch and steered clear of people in case the girls and I were contagious and our symptoms just hadn’t shown up yet. (Thankfully we escaped it!!!) I did find out I’m anemic though (which explains why my energy level never bounced back at all second trimester). Hopefully the extra iron will kick in soon and my biggest craving (naps) will disappear. The illness and exhaustion has left us going from a state of being surrounded by love to a relative place of isolation. Coupled w...

It’s been wonderful seeing family and friends. I feel like the time is passing too quickly though and I haven’t had a chance to see as many people as I’d hoped. I feel like we’re close and yet so far away up in Clarkston. Always know you’re welcome anytime you’re up in Atlanta to come on over and see us- we’d love to have you and show you everything going on!! We’d taken two cars to church and the girls got back slightly earlier than the boys. After unstrapping H and letting both out of the car, M started to dash for the garage door. As she started I could see my father-in-law driving down the road and about to pull into the driveway. I called out a quick ‘whoa’ to M and she immediately stopped. I smiled at her (happy that she’d obeyed the first time) and explained I hadn’t wanted her to get squished by Poppy’s truck (which is my usual speech in parking lots or near roads). Her reaction wasn’t usual though- she burst into tears and came running to me for hugs. Unlike previ...