I hope for you.
That’s what she told me.
I’ve been feeling wonky and off-kilter for a while and I resolved to do something about it. And this weekend I figured out what that was. Wrote it down. Made it pretty. Brainstormed ideas about it.
This summer, I want to be grounded in Scripture, in writing and art, and in physical health.
I’m going to be busy busier. I know it already. VBS is one big thing I’ve got to make happen, and there are more. There are things I’ve got to do. These past few months have been all about the busyness. It’s been all about getting things done, and yet nothing seems to get done.
I just wanted…needed…to find my rhythm again. I thought why not ground myself. Make myself step back and away from everything. Meditate on the Word. Chronicle my life. Reflect. Feed my creativity. Nurture my health. Take moments just for myself.
Now I was ready for June, July, and August. But especially today, June 1st, a Monday. I was ready. I had plans. I had hopes. I had motivation. Summer was going to start right.
But it didn’t. Not. At. All. It started with errands, no parking, and body problems. It started with plans that never began, hopes dashed, and motivation gone.
It started with wanting to get home when my grandmother’s neighbor struck up a conversation and asked for a ride.
And I said yes.
Not because I was feeling generous.
Not because I was trying to be Christ-like or evangelistic.
Not because I knew her. I don’t think even my grandmother knows her.
I said yes because she was tricky.
She asked where I was headed and it turned out she was headed the same direction.
I might have also said yes because she took a chance and asked a stranger for a ride, which is either courageous or crazy. So I asked God to please let the little old lady not turn out to be crazy.
She wasn’t. She had a thick accent and an English name of Jenny. She told me about her son and pointed out where she had to go. It really was on my way, and we passed by my church. So I pointed it out to her. We ended up near my pastor’s house, so I told her that.
I dropped her off at a street corner, helped bring down her rolling bag from the backseat, and shook her hand goodbye. She thanked me and said, “I hope for you.”
I hoped for myself too, and my hopes for summer were cut off before they can grow roots.
Things didn’t go the way I wanted them to. They didn’t even get to begin going. It’s like when you’re all set to do something when someone interrupts you. It’s when something knocks the wind off your sail. You’re about sit down for a cup of tea when the baby wakes. You’re stretching just before your run when your spouse asks you to do something. The spoon is halfway to your mouth when the phone rings.
Then it’s easy to just give up. It’s easy to think that there’s no use for that change you wanted to make, the rest you wanted to take, the peace you wanted, and the hope you had clung onto. Why bother? Something will happen. Someone will come along. And you’d be wonky, off-kilter, and have no rhythm. Have no hope.
But that little old lady helped me remember that I’m not the only one hoping for myself. I have people in my life who hope for me, but most of all, God hopes for me.
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” Romans 15:13 (NLT).
God is hope, and His Spirit who is in me is hope and fills me with confident hope. Plus joy and peace.
There is hope, and you’re not the only one hoping for you. God is our source of hope, but we can be a source of hope too.
I’m pretty sure the little old lady just meant to wish me well because I did her a favor, but I’ll tell you what she told me today.
I hope for you.
And not just as well wishes or a throwaway phrase.
I hope for you.
For your days to be bright. Your dreams to be big. And for God – our Hope, Peace, Joy, and Confidence, – to be ever so overwhelmingly present in your life and everyday realities where plans do break and hopes get dashed, but everything turns out okay. Better than okay. They turn out as God has planned for you.
