What holds more power in your day to day thinking? Hope or hopelessness? Light or darkness? God’s promises and power or the evils of man?
It amazes me how easily I can find my faith – my hope – slowly drifting away. I have been a person of faith and have heard of the power of my LORD all my life. Yet even with decades of hearing, seeing, experiencing, and knowing, I still find that my thinking can go sideways. A situation arises that seems utterly hopeless or evil and I wonder how anything good could ever come from it. Hope seems light-years away.
Why? Has God changed? Has His powerful hand been shortened? Have His eyes lost their ability to see? His mind no longer capable of knowing? God has not changed. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God’s power is beyond what we can comprehend and extends past anything our eyes and experiences have put before us or ever will (at least on this side of eternity).
This is important for those of us who are Christ-followers or even Christ-seekers to keep in mind. God is not sleeping. God is not unaware. God is not limited. And if this is true about God – and it is – even in the bleakest of circumstances – even when the odds are stacked up against something – when God is in the mix there are no limitations. Everything is possible.
We need to be intentional about where we allow our minds to go. We need to push the “pause button” in our brains when our thoughts begin to spiral out into the abyss of hopelessness. No situation is hopeless when God is involved. Not one. No odds are too great because God is a God who defeats the odds.
I needed to pause my mind yesterday. Yesterday was one of those days at work where my heart was heavy. The school day began with a kiddo who was struggling to regulate his emotions and was absolutely stuck and unwilling to receive help. That kind of stuff discourages me because I have worked really hard to develop relationships with the kids I have in my care. I did my best but still felt discouraged. Discouragement rarely sets the stage for any kind of hope.
Mid-day, I was a part of a meeting that while I would consider it a success as far as planning goes, the underlying and unknown baggage that was eluded to was thick. The kid we were planning for has definitely got some uphill battles to climb and a closet full of skeletons to deal with. It’s hard to watch because frankly, it’s not the kid’s fault.
My pause, however, didn’t need to happen until I was in another team meeting for a student I have been working with for the past 3 years. I love this kid. His life – even just the pieces I know of it – have been absolutely tragic. No kid should have to go through what this kid has had to go through. Yet here this little bug is: in a situation where likely the answer is to re-unify this little person with a bio-parent who is frankly unfit. This student is falling apart – academically, behaviorally, socially. My heart has been heavy over the situation, but in our team meeting, I heard words that literally stood in contrast to my core. A representative from an outside agency said this child was not adoptable. Not adoptable? I felt like I had been slapped. What did that mean? Why? Apparently because of the age and gender of this child, along with the fact that they come with baggage – they are considered “unadoptable.” Unwanted.
I heard the words. I understood the message and the reasoning. This kid has no hope. None.
Wait, what? PAUSE. I know I caught myself right there in the middle of the meeting, because I said, “I cannot believe that. I refuse to believe that.” It goes against my belief in who God is and in the belief that we all matter to God. As long as we have breath in us, we have the potential for hope here in this world. We have hope, not based on our circumstances – but based on our God.
“Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead? (Acts 26:8) My God can bring a dead person back to life – but beyond that – my God can bring what was once dead back to life in general. That means: even in the most hopeless of circumstances – where hope seems to have disappeared from existence – it is not so. Hope NEVER leaves. It is not my hope that changes, but rather my focus that changes. I put my eyes on the problem and removed them from the solution.
Pause.
Friend, I have no desire to live hopelessly when I have Hope living in me. God sees. He knows. He hears. He will provide even when the provision feels impossible. There is nothing impossible for Him. His presence alone is all the hope we need.
Where’s your focus? Don’t let your focus rob you from the Hope that lies before you.
Blessings!