Kissed by the Spirit

“After they had beaten them severely, they threw them into prison and commanded the jailer to guard them securely. Receiving such orders, he threw them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks….

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors flew open, and the bonds of all the prisoners came loose.”

Acts 16:23-26 (NET)

Paul and Silas couldn’t have been in a more paralyzing position than  sitting on a cold prison floor, after being beaten, with their hands and feet shackled. 

So what did they do? They prayed and sang praises to God, then God answered with an earthquake that shook the prison, and broke off their shackles. 

Not all shackles are made of iron.  There are invisible shackles like the shackles of spiritual oppression, fear, depression, mental health problems, or various illnesses that physically restrict and disable us.

Paul and Silas were beaten and shackled, but in their discomfort, they still praised God. Scripture calls that a ‘sacrifice of praise.’ 

(Hebrews 13:15)

Their praise got God’s attention, and He shook the earth for them. Praise brought them a joy that could only come from the Lord.

As I was flipping through channels one day, I watched a Christian missionary in Haiti, playing his guitar and singing in an orphanage. The camera focused on one little boy shown below, who was paralyzed with spastic movements, who has been bedridden since birth. 

He couldn’t run and play with the other children or dance to the music like they were, but he was dancing in his spirit. The shackles of paralysis were no match for the joy that the Lord put in that boy’s heart. God was pleased to shine His joy through the least healthiest and most feeble child among all the orphans there. He has a joy that radiates from deep within and shines through his smiling face. It’s a gift from God.

We all need that kind of joy that isn’t dependent on circumstances, good health or material things. Joy arises from gratitude. It’s easy to be joyful when everything is going great but when trouble weighs us down, we feel shackled. Paul and Silas show us that by praising God, He broke off their shackles. The Lord really loves us and inhabits the praises of His people. (Psalm 22:3)

I’ve come to realize that joy is not only a gift from God, but is our gift to God. The Lord and Great Physician, prescribed gratitude as the cure for our anxiety. “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

Paul advises us to rewire our thought pattern with gratitude, by taking every thought captive, to the obedience of Christ and His promises.  (2 Corinthians 10:5) 

Paul was saying what a functional MRI and modern science confirms, that we can control our thoughts, and our thoughts do not control us. 

Choosing gratitude transforms the mind and the brain. As we tell God what we are thankful for with our thoughts and words, joy arises within us. These are lessons I am learning on days when I need to overcome a tendency to dwell on the negative. 

Praise and gratitude is the source of joy for a bedridden, paralyzed boy, and it was also the source of joy for Paul and Silas, before God shook the ground and broke off their shackles. We can choose joy by redirecting our thought patterns, and rewire our minds by offering a sacrifice of praise to God. 

Lord, give us a spirit of gratitude and praise so that you will shine through us, as you break all shackles and fill us with joy. Amen

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.

For the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all who wait for him.”

Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)

I had an embarrassing experience recently at church. I was asked to read the scripture in place of a lector friend, who usually reads on weekdays while I usually read on weekends. 

To clarify, reading on the weekends is a little different than reading on weekdays. The weekday lector reads one scripture plus a Psalm. The weekend lector reads two scriptures, but no Psalm, because a cantor sings the Psalm on weekends.

So the friend asked me to read for her on a Wednesday. When the time came, I walked up to the podium and in front of the weekday morning crowd, I read a very long scripture passage from chapter 34 in the book of Ezekiel. The scripture was not only long, but very intense. It was about how grieved God was because of the bad shepherds, who neglected their sheep. Somehow, as I read the passage, I was feeling all the passion that God felt, and by the time I finished, I started walking back to my seat, forgetting all about the Psalm that was to be read next. 

As I started going to my seat, the priest calmly said, “the Psalm! ”

I thought, what did he just say?

Then he said again, “the Psalm!” Suddenly I stopped, realizing I forgot to read the second reading, which was the Psalm! 

I was so embarrassed and quickly returned to the podium, pulled myself together and carefully read the Psalm.

After I completed the reading and my work was done, I turned, looked at my priest, smiled and nodded, and he returned the smile and nodded back, as if to imply, ‘It’s all good.’

I was relieved that I completed the task, but was still very embarrassed at my error. 

After the service, people came up to me and said they never even noticed that I forgot to read anything, because they were still thinking about the intense first reading about the shepherds not shepherding their sheep. I thank God for such gracious and forgiving people who comforted me while minimizing my senior moment of air headedness. 

Just then, the priest came over to me with arms outstretched, hugging me, saying, “It’s okay, we’re all human.”

I was touched that he went out of his way to extend his grace toward me, especially with a hug. 

The whole thing reminding me that God approaches us the same way. After we fail in some way, He comes to us with open arms, to hug and comfort us in spirit, after our failures or sins. His arms are open toward us, as the priest’s were that day. God offers us so much grace and mercy, if we are only willing to receive it.

Some people may be too focused on their failures, but God always sees our potential for redemption, as the words of a Brandon Lake song : “I see trauma, I see worthless, but You see something You can work with.”🎵🎵🎵

The Lord yearns to work with us, to lift us up after every mistake or failure. He’s far more gracious to us than any human person could be. 

He wants to show us His love and compassion, with arms always open, ready to pour more grace upon us. 

Lord, open our eyes to see how gracious you are towards us even in our failures and mistakes. Your love overcomes all. Amen

“Even darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.”

Psalm 139:12 (NASB)

For God, the darkness and light are alike. He created the sun and moon for us here and now, but the book of Revelation tells us that in heaven there is no need for sun or moon, because Heaven is always brightly lit from the illuminating presence of God. 

We know Jesus is the light of the world, but we have heard it so much that it’s easy to roll right past that phrase and miss a deeper meaning that God is trying to reveal. By calling Himself the light of the world, Jesus shines a light on us in a special way, when we feel like only darkness is surrounding us. Dwelling in darkness means not knowing which way to turn, or the uneasy sense of not knowing what will come next. It’s any experience where we feel like we’re searching for the doorknob in a pitch dark room. 

Jesus called Himself the door as well as the light, because He lights our path and leads us through the door of renewed hope. We can put our trust in Him, as He give us a sign that He is right there, constantly beside us, navigating our way. 

In 2006, I felt privileged to work with a neurosurgeon group of four very brilliant, honest and good men. At that time it was my eighth year of working in surgery as a neurologic monitoring technologist at the hospital I retired from in 2023.

Before going to work, in those days, I used to pray for my coworkers, making a prayer list of doctors and nurses’ names, who were a part of my daily work routine. There were neurosurgical residents who would come and go, months at a time to learn under the instruction and supervision of this team of surgeons. 

I vaguely remember those residents since they would come and go every year. One young man who did his neurosurgery rotation back in 2006, was an excellent resident, spoken well of by all the surgeons. I never thought I would meet that same young resident again, but seventeen years later, he was the neurosurgeon on call for a hospital 20 miles away, where my son’s motorcycle accident happened in 2023.

When I first received the news that Jon was in a serious motorcycle accident on I-94 and suffered a skull fracture with bleeding on both sides of his brain, I headed straight to the hospital, wondering who his surgeon would be. It was an emergency surgery and the neurosurgeon on call that day, was the same man I remembered as a resident back in 2006. He was now an experienced attending physician in a group of his own, practicing at that suburban hospital. 

The surgery took three hours as he carefully removed the blood as well as pieces of bone embedded in his brain matter. Talk about going through the darkness, it felt dark enough when I first received the news, but even darker, while waiting three hours until the surgery finished. The ray of light was in learning who his surgeon was.

When I was introduced briefly before surgery, I recognized his name. My memory went back to those years prior, and I remembered that he was one of their best residents. Now he was the neurosurgeon on call that day, which is no coincidence. In the middle of such a traumatic day, the Lord shined His light through the darkness, as if to say, 

“I am here, it’s all going to be Ok.”

After surgery, the surgeon told me that he was surprised Jon did as well as he did. Due to the severity of his head injury, he wasn’t sure that Jon would make it through surgery. 

For God, there is no darkness, and if we cling to Him, His light pierces the darkness, and gives us a sign that He is with us. That sign came to me in recognizing the surgeon on call that day was the same outstanding resident I knew of seventeen years ago. 

Jon woke up from a coma two weeks later, with reactive pupils and moving  3 out of 4 limbs. He was awake with a tracheostomy to breathe through his neck, was fed through a stomach tube and still unable to walk. It’s been three years since the accident and though it has been a long road of recovery, it is not a dark road. Jesus has been shining His light from the beginning. Today, Jon breathes on his own, walks on his own, feeds himself, nods, smiles, recognizes family photos, enjoys looking at animal and baby videos, and is starting to talk. 

Whatever kind of darkness we may feel like we are in, a small ray of light is trying to shine through, and it gets brighter over time. Jesus is that light as well as the door to our renewed hope. As we invest our trust in Him, we reap the benefit of Him lighting the path that we journey on. We never have to reach out and grasp in the darkness, because He is right there holding our hand all the way.

Lord, help us to know that your light is shining on us, and thank you for being the light of the world, who opens doors that renew our hope through the blood of your cross. Amen

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

I think a lot about our hands and how we use them. A simple wave with a smile can mean so much to a lonely isolated person. We may not heal the sick or raise the dead as the hands of Jesus did, but He still sends us into the world to be His hands, feet and voice, and to do His work which He already prepared us for.

This scripture assures us that God prepared us ‘in advance’ to do good works. That could apply to any type of good work. We might end up in unexpected places or situations, but God prepared us for it in advance to do good wherever He leads us. We attend the church He sent us to, work at the job we were prepared for, and we reside in a neighborhood He meant for us to be in. He gave us the relatives and friends He wants us to have, to help and build each other up.

We not only use our hands, but our feet to go wherever He leads us. We use our voice to pray and speak words of comfort to others, who need to hear what we say. 

Although my husband passed away seven years ago, he left me the gift of his two nieces and a nephew who live only 45 minutes away. They have been like blood relatives to me, and we share holidays and birthdays together. Over the years, my niece Gabrielle and I, share a special bond of faith with reliance on Jesus, as well as a passion for reading scripture. 

Last week Gabrielle was admitted to the hospital, after having severe headaches for a week. An MRI revealed a blood clot in her left internal carotid artery, which is the artery that brings blood flow to the brain. The reason she didn’t have a stroke is because the other arteries brought enough blood flow to her brain in spite of the blockage. God made our bodies pretty amazing in that way, to keep the blood flowing any way possible.

It turned out to be a five day stay in the hospital, to treat her with blood thinners. Her headaches stopped and doctors watched to see if the heparin would do the job without an invasive surgical procedure.

She was admitted to the same hospital that I retired from, and I visited her each day, asking God how I could be His hands, feet, and voice, to help her at this time. She was naturally anxious, knowing that a clot was in such a crucial place. So my hands and feet were used to bring her lunch each day, since she didn’t care for the hospital food. My voice was used to visit and share stories with each other. Then I prayed for her at the end of each visit.

Thanks to the prayers of my friends, as well as her church friends, the repeat MRI showed the clot is decreasing and my niece was discharged yesterday. She did not require an invasive procedure, but is to continue taking blood thinners at home.

We never know ahead of time, what God has in mind when He calls us to be His hands and feet. He prepared us to do the work He calls us to do, which can mean a different thing with each person. For the past five days, all I did was bring lunch and hang out with Gabrielle. We caught up and learned more about each other than we ever did before. 

Sometimes God stops us in our hectic busyness, using unexpected situations to make us rest and just hang out with people. It gave us a chance to catch up, and talk about her childhood, her father who recently passed away, and to share some of our favorite stories with each other.

We know that we are all meant to live one day at a time and to be still and know that God is with us, and yet we move busily through our days, doing so many tasks so that we seldom stop to be still. It takes unexpected circumstances to stop, rest, relax and reminisce with those who are in our lives. Those five days were spent doing simple things, like sitting still and sharing, which was good for both of us. 

Lord, we offer our hands, feet and voice to you, and ask that you give us the grace to be an expression of your stillness and love to others. Amen

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)

When my son woke up from a two week coma after a motorcycle accident in 2023, it was apparent that he was not going to return to his previous residence anytime soon. So as his legal guardian, I notified Leo, his landlord, that Jon was medically unable to fulfill his rental terms, since he was being transferred to a Nursing Home. 

A few relatives gathered to meet me at the residence to help empty it out so that the landlord could rent it to the next tenant. It took a few trips to remove and take what we could, but none of us could take everything. So, I left Leo a voicemail message that we took what we could, and he could do what he wants with the rest. He called me right back and told me that we had to empty his place completely and the floor was to be swept clean within a few days so that he could rent it out.

It was extremely stressful to be under pressure in a landlord dispute, with more serious concerns going on at the time. I had no idea how to meet Leo’s deadline and the relatives advised me to just leave it as is and walk away, since Leo can use Jon’s security deposit for expenses.

The scripture verse today usually is applied to those who turn from unbelief to faith in God, having a total change of heart, but I learned that God can still change hearts, even without them having a life changing conversion to Christ. The Lord can change any heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, and cause one who behaves as an enemy to have a new attitude of grace and mercy. 

I set out by myself one day with a few garbage bags to remove what I could from the residence and leave it clean as Leo demanded. Knowing I could never remove the furniture, I kept asking God what to do about Leo. As I drove to the residence, I asked God to change his heart, unaware that He already did. 

I arrived at Jon’s place and as I opened the door I was shocked. It was completely emptied of all furniture and the floor was swept clean. I later learned that Leo had a ‘change of heart’, and went ahead and emptied it all out, despite his demands two days earlier.

The Lord is truly our Rock, and a stable place of refuge, for when we start feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of life. Jesus heard and answered my prayer. He changed Leo’s heart, from being hard stone to soft flesh, just as today’s scripture describes. It may sound trivial to some, but for me, it was a sign of grace, at a time when one more stressor to deal with, would have been overwhelming. 

Leo’s change of heart was not the usual kind that refers to a conversion of faith, but God can change and soften hearts in other ways too. I hope He continues to change Leo’s heart by leading him to have faith. 

Jesus, whose heart overflows with mercy, puts mercy into the hearts of others. When we see how much the Lord loves us, it gives us more confidence to fully depend on Him in every future dilemma we face.

Lord, we cast our cares upon you, asking you to change the hearts of those we pray for, and we give our hearts to you, our Rock, whose love strengthens us and gives us peace. Amen

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

John 6:9 (NIV)

I want to share an incredibly true story I heard from a priest, Fr. Dan Reehil, who speaks on various talk shows on the EWTN network. He pastors a church in Tennessee, and told a story about a nun he knows personally, who had the privilege and blessing to experience the following miracle. 

It happened in Medjugorje, a Croatian village in the Bosnia Herzegovina area. About ten years ago, her convent was asked to provide a dessert for a barbecue picnic event for 250 orphaned children in the nearby village. Other groups were assigned to bring different foods.

The nun who was asked to shop for the dessert, ordered 250 pudding cups to be delivered, unaware that she mistakenly gave the wrong date for delivery. The children arrived all excited about their picnic, but the nun in charge of dessert realized that she ordered the pudding cups for the wrong date. The only dessert she had was a sample pack of twelve pudding cups.

She frantically went to one of her  older sisters, explaining the crisis. The older sister said something that may have seemed foolish, yet very familiar. She told her to just go and put out the twelve pudding cups that she had.

So, the twelve pudding cups were placed on the dessert table, for two hundred and fifty kids. The nun dreaded watching the first twelve children take a pudding cup, while the rest got nothing. It seemed like a foolish plan, but not any more foolish than Jesus ordering one boy’s lunch to feed a multitude.

Then the nuns prayed and watched  250 children go through that buffet line, and as they came to the dessert table, they each took a pudding cup, and all 250 children ended up with a pudding cup! It was like the gospel miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes.

When the nun told this story to 

Fr. Dan, she emphasized that it wasn’t just the pudding that was multiplied, but it was multiplied in the original plastic cup packaging. He asked her why that is so significant. She said, “We now have all 250 empty cups as evidence of the miracle.”

Those empty cups are kept in the convent as relics of proof that Jesus still multiplies whatever we offer in His name, today. He once said “Let the children come to me,” because He cares about children and their needs, even if it is something that seems trivial or ordinary to us. He made sure that every child got their own pudding cup that day. 

There is a heavenly math that is beyond all logic or understanding, when Jesus takes the least among us or uses our minimal capabilities,  He multiplies it to bless many others. It’s how His kingdom on earth works. He cares about our ordinary wants as well as our heavy hearted urgent needs. Nothing is too ordinary or too heavy for Jesus, who love and cares for us. 

In hearing this story, I realized that I often pray big but expect minimal. The nuns put out the minimal and the Lord answered bigger than they expected, with original packaging and all. When faith is put into action by offering whatever we have, Jesus shows up with His system of heavenly multiplication.

Fr. Dan summed it up by saying that we might have a twelve cup situation in our lives. We may not have enough money, enough patience, enough time, or enough faith for what the next week asks of us, but the Lord is telling us to bring Him our minimal and He will multiply it and make it go farther than we expect.

Lord, thank you for being the same God today that you were years ago. We give you what little we have, and trust that you will multiply it for your glory. Amen

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God…Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Hebrews 4:14,16 (NIV)

It was December of 2023 that I applied for Jon’s disability through a phone conversation with a Social security agent. The next step was to send the application to state headquarters where a case worker would be assigned.

A resident at the Nursing Home used to tell me that no one will get disability without the help of an attorney, and he urged me to get one for Jon. I had little confidence in government systems, since we live in a flawed world, with flawed people who run those systems, but we have a perfect high priest in heaven who told us to come confidently to His throne of grace, in time of need. 

So I put my confidence in God because He still has a few good people inside those bureaucratic institutions, and if we pray, He can send the right person at the right time to help us. This is the story of how Jesus interceded from His throne and did just that.

Jon was assigned a case worker named Katherine at the state headquarters in Springfield. She was kind and diligent, and when she sent a form to the Nursing home to fill out, their answers were too vague and medically inadequate for Jon’s disability to be approved.

Katherine picked up the phone and called the Nursing facility, until she found a person with enough understanding to give her the medical information needed. I thank God for her because a more apathetic person would have let his application go through the system with inadequate information and be denied. 

Katherine assured me that she had all that was needed to get it approved and I would soon hear from the SS office near me. 

Months went by and I never heard anything so in October of 2024, I went to my local Social Security office and learned that Jon’s application was approved but was suspended because they had no information about where to send the money, even though that info was given at the time of application. 

The agent told me that a letter was supposed to be mailed to me, but they were behind in sending out letters. That explained why I was left in limbo for months, so I gave her all the information needed to finish the process and Jon received his first disability check in July of 2025. It took 19 months to move every mountain since beginning the process. 

Dealing with bureaucracies on our own is kind of like finding our way through a black hole, but we have a high priest in heaven, with all authority over this world. He heard my prayers and sent the right person at the right time, to help finish the job. 

We cannot place all confidence in people or government institutions but since our citizenship is in heaven, (Philippians 3:20)

we can put our full confidence in Jesus, the One who sits on the throne, to help us in our time of need.

Lord, our hope and confidence is in you, and we bring our petitions to your throne of grace, trusting in your help in time of need. Amen

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

Philippians 3:8 (NASB)

Paul’s strong words compare the great value of knowing Christ, to his loss of all things. For Paul, to know Christ far outweighed the value of perishable things, which he declared to be rubbish in comparison.

A secular author once wrote that ‘life is a process of storms and rebuilding, of fires and regrowth, of loss and gain.’ It’s a principle that is echoed throughout scripture, like the story of Job, who lost everything except his faith, in declaring that it all came from God in the first place.

Jesus told us to value the eternal treasures, not the perishable ones. John the Baptist, had one single garment of camel’s fur to wear, ate locusts and honey, and preached about the coming Messiah and His kingdom. Although God called him to a special but peculiar mission, Jesus said that John was greater than any human person who lived. (Luke 7:28)

If John was the greatest example of a human person, then that greatness had to be in his detachment from things. Maybe Jesus was saying that there are things we need to be detached from, and we need reminders to think a little more like John, or like Job, who said that everything he lost belonged to God, or Paul, who referred to ‘things’ as mere rubbish compared to the rich value of knowing Christ. 

A friend who works as a dog sitter for wealthy people in California came into town for a brief visit. We went to dinner this week and she mainly talked about the beautiful ocean front mansions in the Laguna area she works in. She went on and on about where she would buy a home if she ever won the lottery. 

I told her about a resident at the Nursing home, who plays the lottery every day. He has won several times, sometimes hundreds, a few times in the thousands, but never millions. He lives there due to chronic heart failure, and carries a wearable defibrillator, which goes with him everywhere. As long as his vitals are good, he is permitted to take walks to the grocery store where he buys more lottery tickets. 

He is a good man, very kind and generous, with no family, but made me think of how easy it is to become obsessed with money since it buys so much in this world. He showed me his last winning ticket for $550 and I thought to myself, what if that really was his ‘last’ ticket. An attachment to money is one of those perishable treasures which Jesus warned us about. 

God gives us opportunities to rethink our priorities, to rebuild and grow after making mistakes or suffering a loss, but it’s easier to rebuild and be restored when we are detached from the perishable things of this world, and choose to be more attached to the eternal ones. 

Threshing wheat is a process of detaching the straw like chaff from the nutritious wheat kernal. When we place more value on the things treasured in heaven, we are like the wheat kernal, detaching ourselves from the chaff and investing in something eternal. 

The loved ones we have lost are also treasures that last forever. 

We wouldn’t be the person we are today without the people we have known, loved and lost in our lives. They not only live forever in heaven but have left a part of themselves in our hearts, like a last winning ticket to inspire us to keep seeking eternal rewards, until we meet again.

Lord, help us to detach ourselves from chaff, and seek imperishable treasures, by valuing the winning tickets of virtue that bring the eternal rewards in heaven. Amen 

“From afar the Lord appears:

With age old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you. Again I will build you, and you shall stay built, virgin Israel.”

Jeremiah 31:3-4 (NAB)

Once in a while the prophets write something that clicks with where we are at in our current lives. As I read the words of Jeremiah in today’s scripture, even though God is speaking to the exiled people of Israel at the time, the message is timeless, and applies to every believer as well.

The Lord gives us this special description of His love. Other bible versions call it ‘everlasting love,’ but the original Hebrew bible says ‘Age old love’, so I’m going with that version, which is probably what Jeremiah originally wrote.

To say to His people, ‘With age old love I have loved you,’ sounds like God wants us to know that He has loved us for a very long time, and through the many changes and phases of our lives. He was there and watched us grow in times of maturing obedience, which made Him smile like a proud Father. There were times that our choices led to distraction as we slipped a little farther away, but the Lord kept pursuing us, by directing His mercy toward us. 

In all the changes that occurred in our lives over the years, God stays with us, because He never changes. He has held, carried and restored us as needed, because of His ‘age old love’ for us, which brings with it, age old mercy.

We could never earn that kind of love, since it’s unconditional. Daniel called Him the Ancient of Days, but Jesus called Him Father, teaching us that He is also ‘Our Father.’ This paternal, ancient, age old love that God has for us, becomes more meaningful the older we get.

Speaking of old age, studies have shown that seniors who have regular contact with friends of faith and are connected to a church community, are aging in better health and are happier than seniors who live a more  isolated lifestyle. In my church, there are many seniors, some even 90 and older, who live alone but independently, and regularly drive themselves to church each week. 

I don’t mean just driving to church on Sunday, but several days a week. They participate in various church groups, meetings and activities. There is a group that meets for coffee every day, after the morning mass. There are men’s groups, women’s groups, widow’s groups, scripture study groups, and various faith sharing groups, who meet routinely with their community of faith. 

This routine of combining faith, aging and fellowship is keeping the oldest among us, healthy, independent and living with deep peace and a sense of well being. 

Whether we are aware of Him or not, God’s ‘age old love’ always has, and still is, reaching out to remind us that He has been there throughout our life story and is still with us. He never changes with the changes and phases in our lives, because He is the One who sustains us with ‘age old love.’

Lord, thank you for all the years of your faithful, steadfast love, that surrounded us when we were unaware and still surrounds today. Amen

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”

Psalm 130:5 (NIV)

Hope is frail when we take our eyes off of God, which seems to be a recurrent theme throughout scripture. Samson was given the gift of physical strength, and won every fight against the Philistine oppressors. He was called by God to deliver his people until he was deceived by a woman named Delilah. She led him into a trap where he was captured, blinded and shackled. Samson and his people began losing hope for their freedom, but God wasn’t finished yet.

The Lord restored Samson’s strength one last time, to break out of his shackles, and blindly find the support pillars of the arena, where thousands of Philistines gathered to mock and watch him die, but instead, Samson regained strength and delivered his people through his own death that day.

Hannah, in the Old Testament, was beyond the age for child bearing, yet she never stopped hoping. She finally gave birth to a son and Samuel became one of the greatest prophets and advisors in all Israel. In the New Testament, a similar story is told about Elizabeth, who had the same kind of hope as Hannah. In her advanced age, Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist. Scripture teaches us that age and time are no match for hope. God hears our prayers and knows how long we have waited, and does beyond whatever we hoped for.

The Exodus story is the best example of how hope is often challenged. Moses did exactly what God told him to do, and told Pharaoh exactly what God told him to say, but things didn’t happen as Moses and the people expected.

Pharaoh rejected Moses’ plea and stopped supplying straw to the slaves, so that they had to gather their own straw to make bricks, and their labor became twice as difficult. The people were furious with Moses and blamed him for making their lives even worse. Moses simply obeyed God and wondered what God was doing. The ultimate plan of God was to free them from slavery, but they lost hope, by focusing only on their present hardships.

When prayers don’t seem to be answered, instead of giving us the reasons why, God gave us stories in scripture to rekindle our hope. He reminds us that He has the best plan even when we don’t understand it. 

It’s a theme that echoes through scripture. Peter and Elijah, both lost hope for a moment in time, when things seemed to be getting worse.  Peter driven by his fears, denied knowing Jesus, and then hid himself in shame. Elijah hid in a cave from those seeking to kill him, and begged God to take his life. Both men had great victories lying ahead of them, but needed their hope in God restored.

The exodus story shows us that people faced the most difficult challenges before the greatest miracles happened. It’s a lesson of finding patience to keep hope while we wait. Moses and the people had no clue that God was planning something so big, that the laws of nature would be defied. Parting the waters of the sea provided the greatest deliverance in history. The Lord is a big God, who has a bigger and better plan than we could ever imagine, as we trust and keep our hope in Him.

Lord, help us to wait and to act with hope for your better plan and the victory that lies ahead. Amen