Run Wild with the Hope

My photo but not my artwork. I'm told it looks like Fruity Pebbles.

I have long said you can do pretty much anything as long as you have hope.

And these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

~ 1 Corinthians 13:13

And indeed I’m a fan of looooove. Who isn’t. But hope is right up there in the top three.

The phrase “run wild with the hope” is a song lyric. I looked up the entire song and found scripture references that included a favorite verse:

You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
    God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
    and of the farthest seas,

~ Psalm 65:5

Past bible study participants of mine may recall that I’ve always wanted to interject the word “dude” in the middle of that verse.

“You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior. Dude.”

~ Psalm 65:5 (Jenn Modern Slang Translation)

It helps if you channel Jeff Spicoli while you recite that. Awesome. Righteous.

Perhaps I digress.

A quick search of the NIV includes 180 uses of “hope”, 458 of “faith”, and 686 of “love”. Not believing in numerology, astrology, or a whole lot of other ologies … I’m not sure those statistics are deeply meaningful, but perhaps someone better versed in the ologies can fill me in. And maybe “love is a verb” has some significance.

 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

~ 1 Peter 3:15-16 (emphasis added)

Really it comes down to the Sunday School answer. Jesus.

Not familiar with the term “Sunday School answer”? When in doubt, when in Sunday School, the answer to the question – any question – is always “Jesus”. It’s like choosing “B” on a multiple choice test. Legend says that “B” occurs most often, although really that depends on the test. But you stand at least some chance of being correct by choosing something.

Those aforementioned numbers add up to 1324, by the way. Still doesn’t mean anything? Okay, just checking.

When the weather and pollen and such cooperate I like to get out in nature as much as possible. Go for a walk. Soak up a little vitamin D. Appreciate the artwork of the creator.

It tends to restore my hope.

Not that my hope truly needs restoring that often. Maybe maintaining my hope is a better way to put it. But I seriously cannot get enough of the sky these days. And trees. It’s fall right now, with the usual spectacular array of colors. But even cold, dead trees in winter look like they’re reaching toward heaven. I guess it’s more obvious when they’re stripped of their leaves. No decoration. No pretention. Just … well, Jesus.

Keeping my mind on things above.

The hope of the trees in winter leads to the blooming of the trees in spring.

So here’s the question.

I see so many people plodding through life on autopilot. Many devoid of hope (or at least needing a serious tune-up) but afraid to let anybody see it because God forbid we don’t project happy happy joy joy at all times.

“How are you doing?”

“Fine.”

There’s a Sunday School answer for you right there.

How is your hope doing?

Do you hold on to a shred of hope as a way just to get by, or do you

Run

Wild

With

The

Hope???

What does running wild with the hope look like to you?

Is wild even a good thing?

A friend likes to ask, “What is God teaching you these days?” For me it’s been to trust and obey and wait. Wait. Grrrrr! But in the midst there is hope. Always hope. And sometimes a dose of “help me with my unbelief”.

And then. And then. There are those moments when he shakes me forward and shakes me free.

Who’s got their running shoes on?

J

Well the moon moved past Nebraska

And spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills

And angels danced on Jacob's stairs

Yeah, they danced on Jacob's stairs

There is this silence in the Badlands

And over Kansas the whole universe was stilled

By the whisper of a prayer

The whisper of a prayer

And the single hawk bursts into flight

And in the east the whole horizon is in flames

I feel thunder in the sky

I see the sky about to rain

And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

I can feel the earth tremble

Beneath the rumbling of the buffalo hooves

And the fury in the pheasant's wings

And there's fury in a pheasant's wings

It tells me the Lord is in His temple

And there is still a faith that can make the mountains move

And a love that can make the heavens ring

And I've seen love make heaven ring

Where the sacred rivers meet

Beneath the shadow of the Keeper of the plains

I feel thunder in the sky

I see the sky about to rain

And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

From the place where morning gathers

You can look sometimes forever 'til you see

What time may never know

What time may never know

How the Lord takes by its corners this old world

And shakes us forward and shakes us free

To run wild with the hope

To run wild with the hope

The hope that this thirst will not last long

That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain

And I feel thunder in the sky

I see the sky about to rain

And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

And I know this thirst will not last long

That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain

I feel thunder in the sky

I see the sky about to rain

And with the prairies I am calling out Your name

~ Rich Mullins' "Calling Out Your Name"
Psalms 19:1-6, Psalms 65:5-13 

This week’s prompt was born out of a conversation at Denny’s in which the word “hope” flew out of my mouth. I was told it was the magic word. Not sure how long we will continue to write on the same theme, but for Sue Bowles’ take on “Run Wild with the Hope” see bebold7.wordpress.com. And we're excited that newcomer Leisa Herren is joining the party at life4inga.blogspot.com.