Hope and Hard Stuff

First read Acts 3:1-10

It’s really unfair. The whole country is still struggling from events long past. There is poverty, middle class, and wealth here. The healthy and the sick. The people pour their lives into this land. Hard-working, resilient, happy, some of the friendliest people on earth live here. But trauma lurks in dark corners of life here. 

Life here is hard. We know it. They know it. It’s tempting to want to make it easier for them. But you don’t come to Africa to change it. You come to Africa and become changed. Somehow, amidst the never-ending hard, the never-ending hope is a flicker away, bringing its light to the dark corners.  

Hard Stuff.  

It can become overwhelming and defeating if you let it. Instead, we carry an eternal perspective and with that eternal perspective, we carry hope. 

Hope.

We wait for it with anticipation that one day all the hard stuff will be made right. We wait for our faith to be made sight. We don't wait alone. The Holy Spirit is with us. He knows we don't what to hope for or pray for, so He intercedes for us. He carries groans to God for us that are deeper than we could ever speak on our own. 

The man in Acts 3 was lame from birth. Did he ever hope to walk? He was more likely hoping for a little bit of money to get by for the day or even the weekend. Peter and John knew the solution to his problem wasn't money, it was a new way of life. The man went walking and leaping and praising God. The townspeople took notice, opening the way for Peter to share the gospel. Later we see that Peter and John were arrested for sharing the gospel, but the number of men who came to believe in Jesus was about 5,000. 

Hope and Hard Stuff go hand in hand. We all want the miracle of the lame man, but we don't all get it. We don't all get to go from lame to walking, but we all get the honor of making God known, just like that man. All the stuff we go through can be molded to reveal God's glory. That doesn't make the hard stuff easy, but gives it greater purpose. 

The people we serve in our Shine program are the outcast, the forgotten, and seen as a burden or shame to their families and communities. Yet they are seen, valued, and loved by our God, who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one. What if their need brings many people to hear about and know Jesus in ways that would never happen if there wasn't brokenness. 

They have hope! Not because they are healed, but because they have God's presence and care in their lives. He hasn't left them. When we have reached our limit, we have an unlimited Source that abides in us. He is constant. Providing strength to strength and fighting for us. He is constantly near to the broken-hearted with the hope of His Presence.

Brokenness and need open the path for God to be near in our lives and there is nothing greater. 

 

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Question: How do you see God working among the hard things in life in Arua, Uganda?

Prayer Guide: Ask God to show you how He has already provided for the people you are serving. Ask Him to show you how He has already provided for you in ways you haven't seen before. 

Challenge this week: Where do you see God using you to bring hope to others? 

Songs of the week: New Wine by Hillsong

                              Be Near by Shane and Shane

Book Suggestions: "God is Able" by Pricilla Shirer

                              "When God Doesn't Fix It" by Laura Story

Quote a hymn phrase by Katharina Von Schlegel:

"Be still, my soul:

the waves and wind still know

His voice who ruled them

while He dwelt below."

from her hymn, Be Still, My Soul