Jesus’ Power Gives us Hope
I do not think that it is a secret that there are many opportunities to feel overwhelmed at the moment. I think it is okay, even healthy for us to name this and be honest with ourselves and others about it. There are many fears, frustrations, and emotions that we all are feeling. These are heightened right now, but this is an honest truth of life. We will experience these things in different ways throughout our life.
But, that is not the whole story for us, and thanks be to God for that. This makes me think of something that happened in our family last year. Our daughter has troubles sleeping at times, and we were having one of those nights. She had finally fallen asleep on the couch around 5 in the morning. Shortly after, Stephanie calls me from downstairs and said that something was wrong and Rae was acting funny. I ran down and this was the beginning of a journey that included an ambulance ride, ER, and a hospital stay for Rae. We were feeling all of the things above: fear, frustration, and many, many emotions. We found out that Rae had a string of seizures that morning, and they were multiple possibilities of what was causing it.
Even in the middle of that, there was hope, actually a lot of it. Friends and community came around us and helped take care of Zayden so we can be at the hospital, colleagues helped with anything needed at church, and more. Also, there was hope because this brought us into testing that helped find some answers and open up a new path to explore for taking care of Rae.
Yes, life is real, and it can be really tough and scary at times, and I am not one to ignore that. But, Jesus is so much bigger than that, Jesus is big enough that we have hope, even in the really tough times. We might just need to be reminded to see it and look around for it.
“Jesus, you are hope, help me see hope in all things. Amen.”
Jay Kiel
Tomorrow: Jesus’ Power Help us be Bold
