We Have Hope

This week, a few needs have come up in my surrounding community.  One, a dear friend and brother in the Lord was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Sean is 27, I had the privilege of singing at his wedding a few years ago.  He and his wife Sara have been amazing friends to me over the years, their heart for others and willingness to serve is refreshing and encouraging.  I will let Sean explain more about his recent diagnosis- he has a way with blogs....http://seantrank.com/2013/10/15/under-water/

Today the weight on our community's chest was added to by another prayer request.  Rachel and David Liebman, who I have also h ad the joy of working with have a beautiful little baby boy, Micah, who fell and hit his head this morning and has bleeding on the brain.  It is beyond sobering to be so reminded of the brevity of life while feeling a slight entitlement to be able to say how unfair all of this is.
The only word that came to my mind as I read the stream of prayer requests in my inbox was hope.  If ever there was a time we needed hope, it's now.  Hope that ultimately God will be faithful to be the good, kind, sovereign, generous, powerful, gentle and comforting God He is.
And then I stumbled on 2 Corinthians 4.  I couldn't pick one verse to sum up the weight of everything happening, so instead- I'm going to just post the whole thing here.  I hope it encourages you the way it encouraged me this morning, I hope it reminds you of God's love, heart, and the weight of His glory.  (perhaps later I will blog on the contrast between the weight we are experiencing for our friends and the weight of His glory...hmmmmm)
But for now- I am just gonna paste the chapter in I find the bible says things better than I do-
please pray for Sean and Micah; and be encouraged- we have hope.

 

2 Corinthians 4

The Light of the Gospel

 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God,^[a] we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice^[b] cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. ³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants^[c] for Jesus' sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Treasure in Jars of Clay

⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.
¹³ Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, ¹⁴ knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵ For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self^[d] is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

I love living in San Francisco, I adore this city, it's character, it's beauty, it's complex weather systems, and it's unique combination of vast spanning nature and sky scraping urbanity.  In my almost 4 years here God has molded the resolved tolerance with which I arrived into a love for this city that truly has become a piece of my heart.
In January I began running, another thing that God has slowly but surely given me a love for.  My faveorite and most frequent route is the 2.5 mile stretch from lower Haight, straight down Market to the Ferry Building.  It isn't anything to brag about- but the reward is the time spent sitting on the docks, drinking coffee, observing my two of my favorite things, tall buildings (hence my instagram handle @adventureswithtallbuildings) and beautiful sky.  

I have always been enamored with the sky.  I have files upon files from as far back as high school on my computer of pictures of the sky:  Sky1, Sky2, SkiesAtNight, OnAPlaneInTheSky, CloudySkies...you get the point.  I don't know why, aside from the obvious, it's beautiful.  Something about it just always takes my breath away. 
And call me a city girl- but there is nothing more exhilarating to me than being in the midst of skyscrapers, or even better, observing a sea of them from a high perch.  This love was often practiced in my years in LA driving through the hills with my only directions being the repeating words, "just keep driving up" only stopping when I could see the homes in the canyon, the Capitols records building and had enough space to park my car.
But in the awesomeness that is SF, one must only run a brisk 2.5 miles and the two can be found from one sunny bench.  No Parking Necessary.
About a month ago, some wonderfully generous friends left their car in my care for a season, this has been a wonderful gift- as well as a much needed reminder of something I had forgotten since my time in LA. 

I will not get into the life that I had from 2007-2009 here- it is far too much to cover in one sitting- but I can't help but remember one precious thing about that season- something it seems I am reliving these days.

For those of you who have known me more than 5 minutes, you probably know that LA wasn't my favorite season of life.  While it was incredibly formative, and incredibly necessary for me to be where I am now- it was hard- as growth always is.  It was exhausting, disappointing, and straight up bad at times.  But in the moments when I found myself tucked away in a little clearing off the side of a canyon looking over this city I called home and creation that surrounded it- I was reminded of how small this all was in comparison to the rest of the world.  Not just in a, "buck up- you're being so self absorbed" way, or even a "there are people who have it worse than you!" way- it was almost comforting to know that this wasn't it- this was a blip- a mist- this was going to be over- and it would be a piece of the whole- not the whole.  I took great comfort and went to great lengths to find these moments.  Moments where I could be reminded of my own smallness and the hope in a God who promises something much bigger.

These days, I have found myself in a hard season.  Changes at home and shifts in whats happening at work, and as I wrote in my last entry, 20 units at school- never in my life can I remember having such an unending to do list.

So I have this car.
Who would have ever guessed the power of Prius- this car has been a means of Gods grace. 
So weird. 

On the mornings where I don't have the time (or lets be honest-energy) to run, I have been able to get in my car- drive about 8.5 minutes and pull into a spot (thats right- there is designated parking- take that LA) climb onto a cold stone wall and watch the sun come up just behind those far off mountains.  I can then turn my head to the left and see the Golden Gate Bridge, the fog rolling over it, the entire span of this beautiful city, and then back to the rising sun painting the sky pink and red.

As I sit there- I am reminded of God's grace in my life in times-and skies- past.  I remember His faithfulness to me in cities far less wonderful (*cough cough* Los Angeles *cough couch*), His grace in always providing more than I have ever even had the courage to ask for.  The flood of His peace in times of total drought.  I sit there observing all He has done and know He will be faithful to do the same again- knowing it will be hard- but absolutely beautiful.







That's all for now....
#nofilter #justgrace