There is hope amongst the punches and let’s face it, life is hard! It feels especially tough when the hits seem to keep coming, one after the other. We feel at the end of hope. That last trial did us in. We barely have time to recover, when WHAM! Here’s another one for you to figure out. Punch after punch. I will be brutally honest–I do feel like I have been beaten down into submission at the Hands of God sometimes. The losses endured, the physical challenges and the diseases exposed that could kill the body at any moment. 

But all of life is not difficulty. There are hundreds of small, beautiful, memories being filed away in that grey matter, alongside those tough moments that seem to prevail. 

I knew for a few months that something BIG was going on in my body, but I put it off to overreaction, thinking symptoms would pass, when they were truly building up in an effort to warn my stubborn brain that it needed attention.  Our bodies are so resilient and strong—I see this when folks can do the physical training for triathlons, or long hikes across the country. And yet, in the midst of this strength, we have to acknowledge that we are so utterly helpless and fragile, too. One hapless fall can cause a broken neck, or pushing limitations just a smidge too far can result in a stroke. It’s a mystery to me.  We are at the mercy of God’s grace and will every second of the day. We are not in control of anything. We daily expend the stock, and one day, it will be exhausted. I have found myself wallowing in this often—wasting precious time being hurt or angry about the things I couldn’t control, the things I thought should happen. Who am I to assume authorship over my life, or the lives of those I love?  What a notion…What prospects do I have to hope that tomorrow will be better . . . that I can ever recover? But there is HOPE amongst the punches. Hope. What a magnificent word!  Isaiah 43:18-19 says:

Do not forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland…

I don’t understand it. How can I see blessing and hope when circumstances continue to crumble and bring me to my knees? It is beyond understanding. 

We do have the ability to HOPE, even when we don’t feel it, it is there. We just have to reach a little bit further and touch the garment…clasp the hand of the Almighty. Hold on, dear one! If I can believe this, so can you.