When I began this blog I titled it "Hope on the Inside" because I wanted to use my writing to express the hope I have, in God, in life, in redemption. Nearly two years ago I wrote a post called "Earnest Expectations" about faith being the legs of hope, the earnest expectation that transcends wishful thinking.
But what do you do when inundated with nothing but bad news? Do you lose hope entirely, or watch it fade into nothing more than a faint image of what it was before your faith was relentlessly assaulted.
Lately I've been bombarded by painful news. But really, most news prisoners receive in prison is painful. Even "good" news because it reminds us of what we're missing... new births, marriages, new jobs, graduations. You want to experience these things rather than hear about them. You want to be there to help or comfort in the bad times... illness, death, divorce, kids making bad choices - adults making bad choices. And what do you do with your own bad news when you're cut off either by fences of razor wire or walls of rejection from those you love, whose help and comfort you need?
I don't know what the answer is because I'm not moving mountains with my faith...yet.
And so, I continue to hang onto hope, speaking and praying those things that are not as if they are, and when my faith falters I go back to the Source with a plea for more. I remind myself that "I would have lost heart (hope), unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." (Psalm 27:13)
