Long Thoughts

 I was listening to a great interview of James Taylor, who was reminiscing about his childhood in the Carolinas.  He remembered the woods where he spent time with the trees and there he could have "long thoughts" with himself.  How little our thoughts are "long" any more.  We exist with sound bites, trailers, ditties, the shunted language of the digital world.

I am thinking about the places I have been able to have long thoughts with myself:  in a cabin in the woods, on a wooded hill, on a bus trip in Scotland, on a jet ski on a lake in the Tehachapi Mountains, laying in the grass below El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.  The visual memory is vivid.  The message just as clear in each.  

I even remember being stuck inside my house in a snowstorm, in a cast for a broken ankle, my kids out-of-state.  No way to go anywhere.  Even there, God had a word for me.  "Be still and know that I am God," he says.

There is never enough space for God.  He can fill me and, more expandedly, have me fill the space he creates.  Will I ever be still enough to hear it all?

Do less, so you can be more.

The Path

 You make known to me the path of life...(Ps 16:11)

Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies...(Ps 27:11)

Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.  (Ps 119:35)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path... (Ps 119:105)

He will...guard the paths of justice and watch over the way of His saints.  Then you will understand righteousness, justice and equity and every good path.  For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.  (Prov 2:8-11)

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. (Prov. 4:18)

Ponder (make level, weigh carefully) the path of your feet then all your ways will be sure.  (Prov 4:26)

For Living

 Christ died, he took the entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to be in relationship with him and each other so that you could bear fruit (deeds, fruit of one's self, true self, "right" self) and conduct oneself in alignment with your "true north."  Romans 7:4 The Message

When my decisions don't result in right actions, something has gone wrong deep inside me.  I truly delight in God's desires, but parts of me covertly rebel and just when I least expect it, those parts take charge!  Who will help me?  Jesus Christ!  He acted to set me right in a life of contradictions. Romans 7:22-25 The Message

In Christ's presence, we no longer live under this black cloud.  A new power is in operation Romans 8:1-2. The Message

Those who trust God's action and find God's Spirit working in them are the children of God. Romans 8:11 The Message

It's interesting that washing "cleans up" a person's motivations and actions:  we are now clean, clear, justified, translucent, and innocent all the way through.  I do feel contaminated by my involvement in a contentious world.  I wanted to change it; instead, it changed me.  Hose me off!  Get behind my ears!  Rinse out my mouth!

To stay clean, I remove myself from the mud-slinging and, instead, focus on the priorities of justice.  I was oppressed.  I felt attacked.  I felt stripped of safety and I felt the need to protect my country, which in its better days, felt like a vehicle of protection.  Not always today.

I am actually ashamed of it.  Disappointed in that I didn't see it sooner.  I call it out now.  I support the oppressed now in new ways.  The facade of "America" seems to no longer hold for many.  Are we lost forever? Is taking it down the only choice?  

I can't focus on the institution that way.  I must utilize its power for good.  Remember that power shared is power gained and I must join with those in power and those who are marginalized and become as part of the Kingdom of God.  Only you can make it so, Lord.  Amen!

Heart and Soul

May the God of peace make you holy in every way and may your whole spirit (pneuma) and soul (psyche) and body (soma - life) be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.  God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.  1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

I have only recently begun to be able to think about my soul.  I wondered about my soul.  I wondered what it was, differentiated from my "life" or "spirit."  Then, I realized my physical heart gives me the metaphorical lesson for my soul.

In a literal sense, my heart sustains my body.  Even my brain cannot operate without my heart.  Although my heart can function with minimal brain activity, it is also dependent upon my brain.  For my heart to be at its best, I must take care of my body by keeping it fit and active, or my heart fails.  The interdependence of body, brain and heart is clear.

So, my soul.  It sustains my life.  My spirit cannot operate without my soul.  Although my soul, which is my identity, can function with minimal spirit(ual) activity, it is dependent and enlivened by my spirit.  For my soul to be its healthiest/fullest/truest self, I must take care of the entirety of my life by keeping it engaged in righteous pursuits and relationships or my soul loses its fulfillment, its greatest capacity.  The interdependence of my spirit, soul and life is clear, especially in the pursuit to be whole, righteous (as I ought to be) and wholly God's.

The metaphor continues.  For my heart to be well, my doctors (medical community) say I need to exercise and be selective (less sugar and fat/more plants) and less gluttonous about what I eat.  Exercise needs to be regular (as in daily) and with enough exertion to raise my heart activity to what they call "cardio."

So, my soul.  For my soul to be well (and souls do become sick and damaged, unable to sustain a healthy life), I need to engage in spiritual activities and be selective and less gluttonous with worldly intake.  

What is the "sugar" of this world that sets up my lifestyle to damage my soul?  Idolatrous practices, of which I can't get enough and which completely distract me from God, and includes addictions to pornography, TV, food, power, money....  And then the gluttony:  those behaviors which are legitimate needs of the soul (like food for the heart) but in which I engage in excess.  These include relationships and service to God, which I indulge in sometimes to the exclusion of God.  All contribute to the wear and tear of my soul.  

For a healthy soul, the activities and exercise for my soul need to involve my body (life) and be regular (daily) and with enough passion and engagement to raise my life activity to a level that brings energy which strengthens and sustains my soul.  

Like a heart which can get injured through accident or attack, the soul can be harmed.   And like the heart, which can be healed through the intervention practices of a doctor, so the soul can be healed by the intervention practices of spiritual healers and guides who use prayer, companionship and coaching for wellness.  The Greek word for soul is psyche.  Those spiritual guides and healers could be called psychologists, but they could also be called prayer partners, sponsors, mentors or friends.  Jesus would call us brethren, which means "of the womb." I take this to mean those who are born into new life by His work on the cross and the Holy Spirit's engagement in this new life.

To know and nurture your soul, you must be born again, Jesus would say, into a community of other reborn souls and sustained by a soul-healthy lifestyle, which includes a soul-fitness community known as the Kingdom of God.  Then the entirety of what is life will be preserved (taken care of, guarded; specifically, from external attack).  It will be a fortress.

To use the metaphor shamelessly, when the heart is strengthened through exertion and endurance, it can stand the rigors of a demanding life; it can bear the physical burdens of caring for household and community well into old age; it can lead the rest of the body into wellness, even when injured or attacked.

So, the soul, when it is strengthened, it can bear the psychological, social and spiritual burden of caring for household and community into old age; it can lead a life into wellness, even if injured or attacked. The soul will respond and enable a strong lifestyle on a parallel level to my heart responding to the care and exercise it receives.  My soul is then equipped to bear the demands and burdens of the struggle with sin.  It is prepared to carry the heavy load of loss and grief, of testing and suffering.  The soul can then forge new paths and develop a life that serves the greater good and bears the glory of God into a hurting world.

Lord, lead me into soul-training!  This life needs the strength of a strong soul!  Amen!

Hope 13

 tiqva - hope, grounds for hope; longing expectation.

Literally, a chord (to twist and stretch) 

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is in him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress:  I will not be shaken.  On God rests my salvation and my glory.  My mighty rock, my refuge is my God.  Psalm 62:5-8

I will not be shaken.  The ultimate purpose of hope is to keep me attached to God for security.  In the world, we attach to other things for our security:  money, position, education, know-how.  We often believe and put our trust in anything but God.

Yet, those earthly benefits will fail us.  We will fail them.  Their influence wanes.  We falter.  They never had the power to save us in the first place.  Our significance and identity (glory-weightiness, worthiness, splendor and honor) cannot rest on such flimsy, changeable definitions.  

In God alone can come salvation.  In God alone is the stability by which I can see myself rightly, in his eyes, by his definition.  I must attach to what God says, only!

O Lord, become my all!  Help me to rely on you alone.  Take me to your throne and let me rest in you.  Amen!

 

Title Covers

It Begins

What has been will be again; 

what has been done will be done again; 

there is nothing new under the sun.  Ecc. 1:19

I quoted that verse to my seminary professor/advisor when he was encouraging me to pursue publishing.  His reply to my quote of Ecclesiastes:  "That is true, but you say it so well."  So, I developed this blog so as to filter some ideas in all the curriculum, essays, papers I have written.  

I humbly submit to you my first effort.  I have published two small, devotional books through Amazon that incude some of the topics that have been posted here.  Now, I have to engage in the next unknown project of marketing.  Pray they will be meaningful for someone.  

Feedback welcome.

An Uninvited Discipline: Etherton, Eugenia Marie: 9798870327600: Amazon.com: Books

An Unexpected Discipline: Etherton, Eugenia Marie: 9798869510112: Amazon.com: Books

Hope 12

hope - yahal - wait, expect, tarry:  patience 

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill to your dwelling.  Then I will go to the altar of God, my exceeding joy.  And I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil with me?  Hope in God, for I will praise him, my salvation and my God!  Ps 43:3-5

It seems the entire purpose of our walk with God, of our faith development is to get closer to God.  Interestingly, I have been taught that the priority is good behavior, as if it alone is right-ness.  Right living only comes from a heart right with God.  Here the psalmist looks to God's light (concretely so as to light the day or metaphorically to include "lightness" or happiness) and his truth (which emanates from God and is about God) as his source for hope because it leads to God himself.  The purpose of the that truth is to light the path to the dwelling place of God.  Think of it as showing the way to a relationship with God.

We tend to look for our answers, our salvation in many far places from God.  Sometimes, we look for our answers in the things of God - his Word, his Church - which can be helpful, but they are not God.  It is where we should place the source of our answers that is the real pursuit. Our answers, our desires, our need for a safe place is actually in a sacred relationship with the Father.  Seek him first...and all these will be added..

Father, open my eyes to the truth you shine a light on.  No other revelation but what comes from you, please.  Amen!

Entering the Darkness

 …To you, the night shines bright as day.  Darkness and light are the same to you.  Psalm 139:12

Most of us know the familiar territory where darkness prevails and we usually work to avoid it at all costs, from the extremes of addiction to keeping a good (false) attitude of the place we are in.  We are just avoiding the darkness.  We fear it.  It is not fun.  Yet, what if, in it, we could find God? What if, in it, we could find the greatest truth of all?  God is not afraid of it.  It doesn’t surround him like it does us.

Oh, God! Of course, you can see through either.  Both can dispense your truth and your presence.  What if the darkness might hold just as much truth as the light?

Places of darkness are different for each of us.  Maybe it’s the darkness of a hurt we have buried or the darkness that befalls us when we quiet ourselves from shiny, noisy or blustery practices and we have to sink into the center of who we are.  Maybe it’s the darkness of an unresolved relationship or truth about ourselves.  The list goes on, but God’s truth about each can often only be revealed in the chasm. 

And since He is there, seeing it as clearly as if by daylight, if we allow ourselves to enter with him, he can shine the light on the truth we need.  We can stay in the darkness knowing he is there, whether resolution comes or not, knowing that he is there to comfort or guide, satisfy or use it for our good. 

I am not so afraid of quiet now or even the darkness that some would claim to be the absence of God.  I think in the end the only one refusing to be in the darkness is me.  Now I know to enter it and relish the pause it gives, the truth it shows, and the comfort it brings.

Hope 11

 hope - yahal - wait, expect, tarry:  patience.

Elohim - Supreme God

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?...Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.  By day the Lord directions his love, at night his song is with me - a prayer to the God fo my life...Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.  Psalm 42

With deep desire for God, especially in light of the trauma of being human, the writer recognizes that nothing on earth can comfort, let alone satisfy, but God.  We despair and not in a quiet way.  The clamoring and uproar of our soul can fuel a rage even against itself.

The solution does not come from within, but with the presence, the face-to-face encounter with the God who saves.  Only then comes victory and delivery.

How can we know God like this?  The depth of God, which we must explore, meets us in the depths of our own psyche, our own soul.  His love is revealed there; he is not afraid of our depths.  His song plays in my heart, resulting in restoration and revival of the life he intends with Him.

Maybe we shouldn't medicate the pain.  Maybe we should avoid the distractions and displacements and instead walk with God into our suffering, our difficulty.  He isn't afraid and neither should we be.  Let him meet us there and minister to us there and take the lessons, the glory, onto the healing path we need.

Lord, leave me unafraid!  Amen.

Hope 10

 wait - qava - expectantly look for, linger

hope -telehet - hope; by implication, to be patient, trust and tarry

[We are nothing by a breath...a mere shadow...for all the turmoil...all the pursuit of gain....] O Lord, for what do I wait?  My hope is in you.  Psalm 39: 7 (6-11)

Life carries no meaning apart from the Lord.  All the pursuits, all the messaging, all is vainglory, in King James' language, just a shadow of greater things from the Lord.  Nothing satisfies independent from God.  Yet, within life's meaning, can we, with an expectant eye, look for God?  Any meaning for living only happens when we see, when we look for the presence of God within all of life's efforts.  Can we tarry long enough, stop and smell the roses?  Can we be patient as we wait for the revelation of God?

Hope may not be a sudden clarification, but a gradual expansion of our view of the Triune God.  Can we let Him be greater than anything this earth provides?  Can we let Him be closer to us than any expectation we have that comes from our culture?  No matter the noise around us, pursue the presence of God within the activity and  within our own beings.

Lord, help me to open my eyes to your everyday presence, your intent and power to make it so in the world, in others and in me.  Amen.

Hope 9

 The Hope of Christ 

Word - Logos - Something said, made true by its speaking.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God.

All things  were made through him and without him nothing was made.  In him was life and the life was the light of men.  That light shines in the darkness and darkness cannot comprehend it.  John 1:1-5

Jesus' originalness with God and his participation with the Godhead comes with his identity within it and by proximity to it.  He and God are "one and the same." Jesus becomes the very expression of God to humanity.  

Darkness on earth had obscured the Divine's presence (in creation) and led to an ignorance of people to God's intent for all creation.  The darkness was an ignorance of the Divine that had produced misery and God intended to dispel that ignorance and its resultant misery with the life of his Son.

Jesus's life can now reveal God's purposes for all. His appearance  illuminates God's truth and presence, even to the point that his presence obscures the darkness. The purpose for this expression of God (although he would not be the last, as he indicated he would send the Holy Spirit) was to dispel the lack of understanding of the Divine.

There is now no reason for doubt, since Jesus' intent and expression now provides a channel for knowledge and understanding of the truth of God. It is an ongoing effort by the Holy Spirit through his holy people to have that light of Jesus still shine.  His intent is clear:  we are the presentation of revealed truth in these days.

It is our hope that the light given us will continue to go out to a needy world needing the revelation of the Father who loves them.

You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to every in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:14-16

Hope 8

 Yahal - to wait, hope, expect

The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.  The war horse is a false hope for salvation and by its great might, it cannot rescue.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield.  For our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name.  Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you!   Ps 33:16-22

    false hope/vain thing - seqer - deception, disappointment, betrayal

    steadfast love/mercy - hesed - goodness, kindness, faithfulness

    trust - batah - security; place of freedom

We have built our "armies" and they have failed us.  The world gives us a formula for success, for protection.  It only helps for awhile and deceives us into trusting it and the work of our own hands for protection and provision.  Personal strength? Yet, we soon realize that we have failed ourselves.  We soon find that the battle will go on too long.  The forces of evil are too strong.  Our deception will be our failure.

The Lord!  He is the one!  He is the one who can save, protect and feed us.  He alone is our shield.  And he is available through the easiest of means:

    regard his greatness highly

    press into his love; look for it

    be patient and watch as he acts

    rejoice in God's being.

Let that hope be on the grounds (foundationally) of resting upon the love of God.  God is for us; who can be against us? 

It has been you all along, Father.  Help me to celebrate the travail and the victory!  Amen!

The Hidden Rules of Religion

 truth - alethia - objective (not situational) truth in any matter; personal excellence, candor;  transparency and authenticity

Alethia is made of "alpha" + "hidden" in the Greek, literally meaning "first revelation."  Truth as the notion of idea revealed (from God) as in true nature of God and circumstances, standing in direct contrast to cultural norms.

The hidden rules of the religious class and church culture often do not reflect the truth of God.  These rules serve to exclude others and build a fortress of isolation around itself.  In religious extremism this is seen in theocracies which sequester their members through clothing (the hajib), food (LDS doesn't allow its members to drink coffee) , or body-expression (remember no dancing or card playing?), often isolating gender (women) from the worship center and creating a hierarchy for participation and service.  It can include violence against aliens and apostates.  

Are we willing to own whether our religious entity (church or small group) is exclusionary?

And the purpose of these rules?  They protect and preserve the religious class. They segregate the haves ("chosen") from the have-nots.  They create conformity to the point of exclusion.  The closed church appropriates Jesus and his message to create a sequestered body, safe by economic and power structures, like Constantine's use and protection of the early church in the 400s, when he made Christianity the religion of the state.

What if our religious culture is more tradition than truth, especially as a way to maintain bias, separation, position and comfort?  What if we have built a fortress instead of a community that is expansive and expanding?   

Are we like Mary and Joseph, who went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the seat and center of their faith, and in their return home lost Jesus in the crowd?  They assumed Jesus was in the crowd of fellow pilgrims...assumed.  They were absorbed in their communal practice, but were not in Jesus' presence.  They didn't know where he was. To find him, they returned to the Temple.  

"Temple" literally means "altar of speech," the place where God speaks, the inner sanctum. Have we been enmeshed in the Christian community and its rules and rituals such that we have missed Jesus' presence?  How do we find the temple where he resides? 

Jesus has assured us the temple is now in a new place: our hearts and souls, where his Holy Spirit now resides. It is the inner sanctum, to which we must return. While we are not to neglect the community, we are also not to forget our first love.  We are to hold them in balance.  Have we?

Yet this:  you have forsaken the love you held at first.  Revelation 2:4

Hope 7

 tiqva - hope; longing, expectation; literally, a cord. 

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed (crushed), a stronghold in times of trouble.  Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you...for the needy will not remain forgotten and the hope of the poor will not perish...Psalm 9:9, 10, 18

In what hole have you found yourself?  Crushed by the toils of life?  Emotionally destroyed?  Afflicted?  Weakened?  Depressed?  Needing help?

All of us have had all of these.  Life takes a toll on us.  

Our Lord is present to provide a safe place when we have lost all security, when we feel unstable.  He can comfort and supply our emotional needs by his presence and then he offers a connection to the future:  next steps, next opportunity, helping a person or finding solutions.  And he comforts in the meantime.

Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  The Father of all mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.  We need not bear any burden alone.  We need not depend on our own resources, for God has many more to offer.  

Hope makes me thankful to know you, Lord, are at work in both situations and in me.  You know what you are doing even when I do not.  Amen.

Hope 6

 yahal

to trust; to wait, to expect; to tarry (as in not get ahead of God).

God might kill me, but I have no other hope.  I am going to argue my case before him.  God will be my salvation, because I am not godless and can stand before him.  Job 13:15-16

Job is desperate and he knows God is his only hope.  He knows God will hear him out.  Job's friends have tried to diminish Job, blame him, leaving him in a pitying pile, but Job will nave none of it.  He is clear as to his only source for hope.

I think we often go to many other sources before we go to God.  Many other comforts, when God is our only comfort.  He is the only one to trust.  "Imagine that!" my friend use to say after we had sat around and bemoaned our plight.  "We could pray!"  

When will we learn to pray first?  At the slightest level of need, run to God first.  We are like Job, in right-standing with God.  He wants us to come to him.  He wants us to trust him.

Help me, Lord to first raise my voice to you!  I will plead my case to you.  I will recognize my privileged place to come to you.  I am blessed just knowing you are my God, desiring to hear from me.  Amen!

Hope 5

 tiqva - grounds for hope; longing expectation.  Literally, a chord, which can twist and stretch.

Oh, that I might have my request and that God would fulfill my hope...What strength do I have in order to persist?  And what is my end that I should forestall it?  Is my strength like that of stones?  My skin as bronze?  Can I even help myself, or is all chance of help driven from me?

A despondent person deserves kindness from his friend, even though he strays from the fear of the Highest One.  Job 6: 8, 11-14

Job's friend's words (in Job 5) have brought no comfort.  They were ill-timed and accusatory words.  Can we take a lesson on how to be a true help, provide hope? A person is emptied by calamity, so there is no source of hope within. When a person is so afflicted, help (ezra - assistance) and wisdom (tusiya - sound knowledge; substance) cannot come from within.  

What provides help and hope?  Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, mercy.  We don't have to have answers, instead, we can care for a person in distress.  We don't have to solve their problems, but offer compassion, love and support:  a phone call, a silent sitting, a listening ear, a hug.  The presence of another human being provides hope.  Could you provide such a simple act of kindness?

Lord, draw me into the presence of the hurting.  Help me to carry your spirit of comfort to others.  Amen.

Hope 4

 tiqva - hope; longing, expectation; literally, a cord. 

...sorrow is not a natural product of the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the earth itself...This is why, if I were you, I would appeal to God.  I would lay my cause at his feet.  He does wonderful things that confound, with an infinite number of miracles...so there is still hope for the helpless and poor..  Job 5:6-16

For there to be hope for the future, hope for wonderful things, miracles, lifting up, bolstering, justice, it must be tied to the efforts of God in each.  Also, remember that these are only needed in the face of calamity.  Only when we are dry, downtrodden, bereaved, the victim of deceitful plotting and physical peril do we recognize our own weakness and tie ourselves, "hitch our wagon," to the God of the universe, who saves.  

We will only be able to avoid some of those calamities and God will provide and provide comfort, when not.  The hope God provides in difficult and calamitous times become our guide to the future:  safety which delivers us to another day; "water" for flourishing; intervention against plots against us, blinding and binding of our enemies.

The message of Job 5 confounds and upsets Job (seen in chapter 6), but even this righteous man was a victim of a plot against him by Satan himself.  God will prove himself righteous and return Job to good favor.  Can we stand the test as well?

Lord, help me keep my eyes on your favor in the midst of trial;  my hope tied to you. Amen. 

Hope 3

 tiqva - hope; longing, expectation; literally, a cord.

Behold, you have instructed many and you have strengthened weak hands.  Your words have upheld him who was stumbling and you have made firm the feeble knees.  Now trouble has come to you and you are impatient with it.  Trouble touches you and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope? Job 4:2-6

Ah, Job, teach yourself!  All this time you extolled God, helped others, taught others, did you not think the promise was for you or did you think you would be excluded from the general malaise of humanity?

Some would say Job's friends were no help to him.  Okay.  This is kind of blaming, but did Job need to hear the truth of his own words?  Maybe.  Did he need to be pointed to the depth of his own purported faith and comfort that he once gave to others?  I think so. 

And then I think of myself.  The lessons I have taught others, I must cling to!  The care and comfort I gave, I must now accept!  That is my hope!  When I am fraught with disaster, in a weakened state, dare I hope for the help from others or mercy from my God?  Dare I ask?

Lord, help me to know how to be vulnerable enough to ask for help and thus receive hope from others!  My connection to them - the cord that binds - is what will give me hope.  Let me prove my dependence and awe of you when trouble comes by living by the hope of you, Lord, and the proofing of my claimed dependence on you.  Amen.

Hope 2

 Miqve - the grounds or foundation of hope; a collection, a gathering;  bond together

As Ezra was praying and weeping and bowing on the steps of the temple of God, a huge group of Israelite men, women and children joined him in weeping.  Shecaniah:  You are right to weep, Ezra.  We have forgotten our true God and [sinned], but there is hope for Israel yet.  We shall make a new commitment with our True God....and you who are righteous (i.e. follow the law) must guide us...and we will support you.  Ezra 10:1-4

Hope must have a foundation...of truth and right living. Sometimes, hope rests on those who are in leadership, who live rightly.  When a group - here a nation - has completely abandoned the principles of God, their actions have amounted to a broken faith. Deep confession with a change of heart and path is initiated from within, when the people can see their wrongs as an afront to God. 

Then hope reaches out for leadership.

The people of Israel then build on their confession with a commitment to follow and support agents of change, their prophet and priests. It is never an independent faith.  Sin is often communal.  Righteous leadership can lead the community back to relationship with God.  

Lord, lead me to confession and to leaders who would give me hope and whom I can support in their effort to guide.