An Example of Hope!

The other day I left you with these questions about hope:

“What, then, is the expectation?

What is the  good news…?

What is your hope?

And on what does your hope rest?”

I have had a requests to talk a bit more about “examples” of the manifestation of hope.  Instead of asking questions! 

But, first let me say that my questions are often the avenue into your own hearts and minds.  What you think or wonder about the topic.  With my questions, I am inviting you to reflect on your own examples of the concept being discussed.  

I do this because it has become clear to me that people don’t really take the time to think about what Jesus has given to the world.  I think this is most especially true in reference to the Christmas story.  And maybe even the Easter Story!  It is like they bundle all the peace, hope, joy into one feeling of “the Christmas feeling” — the “excitement of the season.”  And the gift of Christmas, the gift of Jesus’ coming, gets lost. 

Gets lost not just during the season of Christmas!  But all year long!  All life long!

Now, I will answer the request to give a true example of the manifestation of hope. One I have personally been witness to.

I will call her Jane.  Jane came to me about five years into my first call.  She was one of the young women who had been sexually misused by the pastor who was asked to leave our congregation for sexual misconduct.  She was also a victim of satanic worship as a small girl and teenager. 

Jane was highly depressed.  She had been through several counselors.  And psychiatric treatment more than a few time.  She originally came to me about the pastor’s inappropriate behavior toward her.  But it was the satanic experience that took the longest to deal with.  I am thinking it took at least three years of work.  Maybe more!

Those years, with me working with her faith journey, paralleled her continuing to see her counselor.  I do not in any way pretend to take on phycological issues.  I am not a trained counselor!  

My job with Jane was to help her to know a God of love and forgiveness.  At first it was an impossible task.  Jane seemed to thrive on being depressed and hopeless.  Not matter what I said in one session, it  needed repeating in the next.  This cycle continued a long, long, long time. With return bouts on the psychiatric floor of the local hospital.

About a year, and months, of no significant change in Jane, God give me a slap on the head.  I told her that I wanted to try something new.  I gave her a spiral notebook; and asked her to start writing to God. I suggested that she write as though she were  praying to God. And then, at her next session, we would talk about what she wrote.  It took about six to eight months before she began to really get into her own issues.  The issues that were keeping her from letting go of her need to be depressed.  Being the victim!  

One evening, as I sat there listening to what she had written, a light bulb thought went off in my mind.  She had named a major problem, a major block, that I thought was keeping her from freedom.  I said to her: “Did you hear what you said?”  She looked at me kind of frustrated; and responded in the negative.  She wanted me to tell her!  I said, “no! You have to figure this one out on you own.”  She was not at all happy with me.  She liked me to tell her what was signifiant in her writings.  She left my office without much more conversation that night.

At the next visit she had done some good work realizing what she had written; and then had written more.  That was the very tiny step toward hope for Jane. As time pasted, God moved her into a new and healthier way of thinking.  Her trips to the psychiatric  floor got fewer and fewer.  She actually began to cautiously enjoy living.  She even join the choir at church.   She had a beautiful voice.  

I was grateful!

Jane’s journey from deep depression to the freedom to live with the expectation of a better, more healthier emotional life, is hope.  Hope for a future with no more fear!  No more guilt, anger and blaming!  By the grace of God she began to take responsibility for herself and her decisions. 

Jane’s hope rested on the truth that God loved her.   Loved her no matter what her past had been. And that God would alway walk with her as she moved into a new hope for tomorrow. 

Joy to the world that Lord is come!