Overflow with Hope

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15:13 NIV


Astonishingly, I'm fully functional at 7:30 and my caffeine hasn't kicked in yet. I'm sitting at my favorite independent coffee shop and actually eating my breakfast here for once. (usually my latte, bagel and I are flying down the road or installed at my desk for breakfast.) But is this being filled with joy and peace, overflowing in hope?

Or is it better to pause, to thank God for all the wonderful things just in this little coffee shop, the volunteer baristas,(this is a unique place indeed) the wonderful coffee, and of course, the cinnamon crunch bagel. The old farmers in the back, talking, laughing swapping stories. The bright sunshine through the window, reflecting on the counter, making it look as though it's much warmer outside than it is.  God has brought all these things together today, in perfect harmony, for reasons that are entirely his own.

Usually I'm one or five steps behind. Usually I don't have (take) the time to sit and reflect on the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15). The hope that I have is this: As wonderful as this moment in the coffee shop is, there is something altogether better and indescribable in store for those who trust in Christ. Those who trust in him have been ransomed and redeemed from the eternal fire and will instead spend all their lives worshiping Him.

It's fairly common knowledge that I've struggled with depression off and on. In the midst of depression, it can be a fight to remember the hope that we have, which often leads into questions of salvation, and a desperate need of assurance. The good news is that Jesus Christ has come to save our souls, and that is a truth, regardless of our feelings.

Nevertheless, hope is very felt to me today. After a much needed spring break, I'm ready to get back at it and I only hope that I can convey in some small way with all the people I interact with today, that I have hope.

I

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I will live for my child

 “I would die for my child.” A well-known, often said sacrificial statement. I didn’t really know how my fierce love for my child would manifest until the first time she was extremely upset and I didn’t know why.  Readers, I would have cut off a finger to console my baby.  I would die to protect her.  Both are strong, love-filled sentiments. And both, God willing, are unnecessary.  But there’s a daunting task that is absolutely necessary. At times it needs to be a conscious decision. Sometimes it’ll require taking care of yourself so that you can better care for your child. Sometimes, for some, it will literally seem harder to do than to die for your child.  It’s living for your child.  Postpartum depression can sneak up on anyone, and I’ve heard heartbreaking stories of just how deeply it affects moms. Good moms. Awesome moms It’s too early to tell for me, but unfortunately, I have almost every risk factor there is. But I also have a rocking support system and wonderful physicians loo
Read more

The Immersion Method

Several things occur to me when I think about the method I'm using to learn French. The first-I'm never going to succeed. The second-I think I've heard of this before.  The method I'm talking about is the Immersion method, meaning that you basically 'immerse' yourself in the language, surrounding yourself with almost exclusively that language, and you learn out of necessity. This is the same way that children learn their first language, by doing. It  sounded promising, so I decided to give it a shot. I switched my facebook page to french. Bold move, yes, but desperate times call for desperate measures. In addition, I found french episodes of my favorite cartoons ever in the history of the world-courtesy of the wonder known as youtube, of course.  In order to learn a language by the immersion method, you almost have to forget about thinking about anything else and only focus on the language.  This reminded me of Christianity. Why? well, think about it. In
Read more

What shoddy internet can teach us about multitasking

       I've been spoiled for the past several years by lightning-fast internet whenever I wanted it. Even in my parents' basement, (I am a true millennial, after all), service was somewhat spotty, but overall reliable and I was usually able to do whatever I needed or wanted to do on the internet, whenever I wanted to do it.       And then we moved to the boonies. No more lightning-fast internet. No mas. Now are internet needs are served by cellular hotspots eeking out a surfable speed from one MAYBE two bars of service.       It's usable, certainly, but I had to learn to go back to the days of dial-up internet (told you I was a millennial), when you could only do ONE thing on the internet at a time. You couldn't even be on the phone! pictures took forever to load, and playing music was nigh impossible.       This situation is an improvement, but I still had to train myself to remember that no, I actually *don't* need to be playing music while I write, surf the inter
Read more