Welcome To Hope

 I wanted to share something today that I first wrote about 14 years ago. The point I was making then was that there will always be places in our lives that hold traumatic memories and have left deep scarring. Because of His healing blood, we needn't "live" there or be held prisoner, but neither can we deny what happened or try to hide from it. In Christ, we can face it, and whatever power it may have held is broken when we do so. It may be a bit longer than my usual writing, but I think it worth the time.

I recently returned to a place I was sure I'd never go back to....the place where my life and ministry were shattered more than 20 years ago. A place of broken dreams, hopes, and deep loss. A place I wanted to forget and move on from. A place I was sure I'd done just that.

I don't want to give the impression I was carrying open wounds. The Father has done such a great work of healing in this and so many other areas of my life. The pain of such an experience never completely leaves, but its power had been broken long ago by the wonderful grace and blood of Jesus. I knew I was free, and yet somehow, something about it all seemed left undone.

Over the years I'd passed a number of times via the interstate, never without some touch of troubling in my spirit. A sense that the Lord wanted to do one last thing for me in all of it. I found myself in the area again and I knew I wasn't to once again just drive by, but to take the exit and the long road leading into the town, and go back to the place I was sure I'd never return to. Back to a few things that had once been central to my life.

As I rode through the town, not much had changed, but the memories came flooding back. I drove the streets I'd once walked and prayed on, bringing the needs of the church, my family, and myself to Him. I drove past places that were once businesses I'd frequented or that still were. I drove past the house we'd lived in, saw the windows to each room, saw the lawn I'd once cut....saw the place where I'd watched my wife and daughter drive away from and out of my life on that long ago day.

I drove down the road and turned onto the street where the church was. It didn't look much different either, but I remembered how I had come there, so full of hope and expectation and the love and care I'd had for the fellowship and people. And I remembered how it all ended, and the wounds inflicted on my heart and spirit as it did so. I remembered the day I'd left, carrying most everything I owned in a 1984 Dodge Colt. I remembered the tears falling as I drove back out that road, thinking that life could never be good again, that I'd ever know joy again, and more, that He could ever use me again. I thought I was driving into darkness and oblivion, which is exactly what the devil was whispering to me. But I was wrong. The devil is a liar and he always has been, and that's why the Lord had led me back here and why I share this today.

I am no victim. Not at all. I'd made my own mistakes in those days and there were things I'd needed to repent of, but He hadn't brought me back to tweak my nose about it all, but to do two things. First, to affirm anew His truth for me. That place stood for everything that had been in my life. What was. That town and place was what had been. Jesus, the Great I AM, is and will always be what is! He's the great reality and He's greater than anything and all things that we could ever have walked through. Despite the devils lies, accusations, and tireless efforts to destroy my life, Jesus the Lifegiver again and again gave me His Life in every place. He not only rebuilt my life but He made it better and richer than it had ever been. He gave me a future with hope. Because He did, I didn't have to avoid going back to the scene of my greatest failure and deepest wounding. I could go into it, fully facing it, knowing He had redeemed all of it. Yes, there was sadness and heaviness as I drove about, but not from bitterness or anger. I prayed for the town, the church, and the people. A town, church, and people He continues to love and seek after with the fullness of His life.

I heard a minister tell of coming into a town called Hope, noticing a sign saying "Welcome To Hope." He said what struck him was that as he continued to drive through, he never saw a sign that said, "Leaving Hope." He said he wanted to live in and with a Christ that always welcomed us into hope and never allowed us to lose hope. When I left that town so many years ago, I felt without any hope. I wasn't. I never am. Neither are you. He'll prove it, again and again if you'll allow Him.

If you're in such a place with the devil's lies whispered into your ear, please, believe the promise: "Hope in God....for He will yet save you." In His way and time, and He won't be a second late. He's there in the journey, in the pain, and in the trauma. Cling to Him. He'll bring you out. You will live in His victory. You need not live in what was. You can face it and triumph over it.....because HE IS! Welcome to Hope!

Blessings,
Pastor O