ISBC 42 - Persevere, Rest, Persevere + A Bonus Synchronicity Photo/Reflection

Chapter 42 of Hope: A User's Manual & Last Year Speaking into Yesterday

Full disclosure - There are two posts in one here. The first is one that I wrote about three weeks ago knowing that we’d be getting our kid moved into college today. I didn’t think about the similarities of it to what I wrote yesterday inspired by the sunrise moment . So there’s a bit of redundancy between this post and what I shared yesterday. Just FYI in advance. :-) There’s a second reflection at the end as well that isn’t about MaryAnn’s book, but instead a moment of really unique synchronicity and also what feels like a bit of a gift of synchronicity from my journal that came last night while we were settling into our hotel room. So…two posts in one! First, what I wrote three weeks ago… Click here if you want to just jump right to the 2nd “new” post…

Life comes at us pretty fast. There’s little time to breathe, let alone process. A colleague described our lives as bodysurfing in the ocean, getting hit by a wave, and having another one strike while we’re still flailing and sputtering. Job stress piles on top of a parent’s declining health, on top of an expired license plate, on top of a busted refrigerator.

“This is today’s best, and that’s OK.” Today’s best doesn’t need to be pretty. Hope is robust enough to survive it. We get through today, world’s okayest style. And then do the same thing tomorrow.¹

Reflection #1 - Written Three Weeks Ago

There’s no way I could be writing this today because right now my wife and I are with our youngest child as they will be moving into their first year college dorm tomorrow to begin their college life.  We will wrap up here on Saturday morning as we fly home to then turn around and take our daughter back to college for her third year of college while our oldest will already be moved in to his third year dorm.  When my wife returns from moving our daughter back in, we officially be... empty nesters.  After 20+ years of being parents with children at home, it will be just the two of us and Scout as our three “little ducks” are off to different nests…

And honestly, I think we’ve done pretty good as parents.  We haven’t been amazing or perfect but we (at least as far as I can surmise) haven’t been terrible either.  We’ve been somewhere between good enough and pretty good.  And all things considered, that’s maybe the best we could have done.  We know there’s plenty of times we have screwed up, said or done the wrong thing, let our frustrations with other things end up being taken out on our children, been overwhelmed by the exhaustion of three kids in diapers back in the day, felt like we finally reached a calm and settled point in the journey only to have something new spring up, been thankful that the flu bug finally worked its way through the house only to hear someone start coughing in the middle of the night, and the list could go on.  But again, through it all...I think we’ve done somewhere between good enough and pretty good.

I went right to parenting when I read this chapter from MaryAnn and especially these two quotes.  The first (as we all love bodysurfing when we’ve visited the ocean) of one wave after another after another after another.  Some waves are caught just right and you get that perfect run to the shore and others are missed because of starting to kick too late and others surprise you and whack you in the face knocking your sunglasses into the water.

But that’s life and faith, and work and play and everything else isn’t it?  Times we just get it so right and others times...not.

But ... grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace with ourselves. 

Grace with others. 

Grace. 

Grace. 

Grace.

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Reflection #2

Yesterday, I shared this image of one of my benches that led to what I wrote.

Interestingly (at least to me), as I was reading my “On This Day” in my journaling app (Day One - I cannot recommend it highly enough) I saw the photo I shared that day…notice anything?

Weirdly, the image from a year ago is very similar to what I imagined yesterday’s sunrise would have grown into had I been able to wait around longer…

I love moments like this! What do these say to me of hope? I’ll answer that, not with my own words, but the words of whoever wrote Psalm 27 thousands of years ago…I’m copying the whole Psalm here but highlighting the part that is stirring in my heart this morning…

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh—
my adversaries and foes—
they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.

One thing I asked of the LORD;
this I seek:
to live in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD,
and to inquire in his temple.
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.
Now my head is lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.

Do not cast me off; do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will take me up.
Teach me your way, O LORD,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they are breathing out violence.
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!

Waiting on the Lord…To go back to the theme of this chapter in Hope…this Psalm speaks of persevere…hope…persevere. Maybe this synchronicity of images speaks persevere…hope…persevere as well - one from a year ago that reminds of what has been while waiting in the not yet.

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

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1. McKibben Dana, MaryAnn. Hope: A User's Manual (p. 174 & 176). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.