Wild Hope
The wilds are unexpected places where the best things begin. Hope is often born in the wilds. Frequently in the Bible, the wilderness is where God transforms us, raises us as leaders, and prepares us to live passionately and with purpose.
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It’s where God wrestles with Jacob and gives him a new name.
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It’s where Moses is called to rise as a leader even though he feels inadequate.
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It’s where Hagar is reminded that God sees her.
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It’s where the nation of Israel was brought to prepare for the Promised Land.
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It’s where David penned the Psalms.
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It’s where God protects, provides for and prepares Elijah.
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It’s where John the Baptist took on the moniker of “a voice calling the wilderness.”
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It’s a testing-ground where Jesus faces off with temptation before his ministry began.
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Audacious, unbridled purpose and possibility are found when we are willing to go through some discomfort to follow God to a new place. This is the message that came to God’s people who were exiled in Babylon. They were living in constant disappointment, corruption, division, and exhaustion, yet Isaiah’s words invite them to get passionate about their future. Babylon is not an end but a beginning. God was doing something new, but it was going to look different than they thought it would.
Do you ever feel like your pilot light has gone out? Like the spark that once fueled your passion, clarity, and energy has been dimmed under the mental load of motherhood? Perhaps it’s the need to make 1 million decisions a day (so many decisions!) that causes you to never really feel confident you’re doing it right. Maybe you are in a season where you feel you are not showing up well for yourself or others; just going through the motions, trying to get to the end of the week.
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That is about to change because we’re declaring this the year of new things. A new season needs a new strategy, and we choose wild, contagious hope. Hope is not a passive exercise in wishing; it’s an active approach to living life engaged. Hope is generative. In Proverbs 13:12 we read, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Hope provides clarity, vision and vitality.
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Looking at the adversity and division that seems to be seeping into the fabric of our culture, hope offers another option – the opportunity to see new paths and ways of living that we might not have considered before. It reminds us that we can make a positive difference in our families and communities and that tough times will not paralyze us. Hope requires courage and trust because to see the new thing God is doing likely means going into the wilds – paths that take us through uncomfortable places and challenges that nourish our deepest longing.
God is doing something new, and we can get our hopes up.
It’s time for Wild Hope.