This week I updated my phone. As I flipped through to check out all of the new features, a headline caught my attention.
First child dies by euthanasia in Belgium.
The words did not sit well with my soul. It brought me back to a memory from November two years ago. Thankfully I had written what I was feeling at the time, and it resonates with me again today.
Yesterday in church we did what has become one of my favorite things.
Brother Philip asked the congregation to say aloud some of the things we are thankful for.
Forgiveness, babies, and creation. As each person announced what they were thankful for, I was overwhelmed. But none had quite the effect that one certain four letter word did.
He spoke with certainty and simplicity. "I am thankful that we have hope." The words fell on a fragile piece of my heart, leaving me in tears. I couldn't see the man's face, only the bottom of his khaki pants and a clear view of his graying hair, but I am sure his countenance was composed and sure.
The words are still clinging to that fragile piece of my heart, and I want to remind you that hope matters. In fact, it matters more than we tend to profess with our lips or our lives.
The tears returned as I scrolled through the news article last night. It was about Brittany Maynard. Beautiful Brittany, who decided to "die with dignity." I wish more than anything that she could have been sitting beside me in the pew yesterday, and that those words would have changed her. My heart has been broken for quite some time for her, as well as for her family. The diagnosis they were given is awful, absolutely awful. I won't pretend to imagine what it must feel like to have the doctor say "no hope."
One of the most memorable and heart-breaking things about India was the ever-evident lack of hope that plagued those precious people. It is such a spiritually dark place, and you can physically sense the sense of hopelessness that so many of them carry.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:3-9
