Holding Out Hope

I looked longingly out my window just the other day toward our deck. As I watched the rain melt the snow off the cover of the barbecue, the thought occurred to me "I sure enjoyed this place during the summer!" It actually birthed a little hope in me, in spite of watching the multiple forms of precipitation that only Seattle suburbs get to enjoy! "At some point", I assured my fainting, if not soaked, spirit, "at some point, the sun will shine again and this rain will be a distant memory." Highly optimistic words for January!

As I sat there feeling sorry for the gray skies and persistent rain I had to endure, I thought of those for whom the clouds of depression or doubt or illness seem a long way from lifting. I know there are those that look out their windows never being able to escape the haunting realization of a terminal disease. Some peer outside only to have the rain remind them of the continuing void of loss due to recent death, either physical, or relational, or both.

It would be too cavalier to simply say "Hey, the sun will shine again for you!" I don't know what they're going through, I don't know how deep their depression might be, so I can't say that. I can, however, point to the one who loves them and cares deeply for them, even in the midst of the clouds and rain. Psalm 42:5 reads, "My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan..." And then, further on in the same psalm, verse 11 reads "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." I think the key word in that whole verse is "yet." To me, it echos with a thought which says "Regardless of what I feel like, regardless of my circumstance, I WILL praise him." It is a matter of the will. It is a decisive move.

But what to praise Him for? How about the final part of verse 11: "...my Savior and my God." Can you muster the strength today to praise him for your salvation? After all, what other means could we have employed to accomplish that? The easy answer is "none." So we can at least, in the midst of rain, clouds, gloom, or whatever, praise Him for doing what he alone could do: save us! "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."