During these last days of Lent, Pam Campbell asks that we may draw strength from the assurance that always there is hope.
The past 15 months have been challenging for our family. We’ve experienced serious health issues, the death of a parent, the loss of a job, dear colleagues retiring and a number of other trials. Those events have taken their toll, and, at one point, the stress seemed like more than we could handle. I called upon friends to laugh and cry and pray with me — and I noticed almost instant changes in the mood at our home.
I set up new budgeting tools, we talked a lot about needs and wants, and we made some adjustments to our spending. We are paying our bills; we have food to eat; and we are warm, safe and dry. We are al so committed to respond to God’s call to share our resources. We are going to be OK. Through it all, we have claimed the promise found in Isaiah 40:31. We have felt our strength renewed, and we know the blessings of being lifted up when we no longer have strength of our own.
Many other people in my circle are hurting, however. We are at the point in life when our parents need extra care, our adult children need a different kind of support, and we feel powerless in a world filled with pain. We encounter disappointment, dismay and disgust, but we also experience relief, reconciliation and respite.
I keep coming back to a phrase that is the hook in a song I love: “There is hope.” I cling to these words even when it is hard to believe them — like when the news is filled with violence or when seemingly perfect marriages crumble. However, I have never doubted that Jesus remains the same. Jesus gives us hope.
At Habitat for Humanity, we build homes and communities, but we really build hope. We help people believe that their lives can be better, and we walk alongside them to create new opportunities.
PRAYER
Great and gracious God, thank You for Your presence in all circumstances. Thank You for images and melodies that stick in our minds and our hearts to remind us that there is hope. Lord, we pray for those who feel hopeless. Shine on them the light of Your power and Your great love. Amen.
FOR DISCUSSION
1. When have you experienced hope when circumstances around you seemed bleak?
2. When have you experienced hopelessness? How has God ministered to you in that time?
3. Whom do you know who needs to hear the message of hope? What are you going to do about it?
4. What is God calling you to do individually, and as part of Habitat, to bring hope to the world?
By Pam Campbell, communications manager for Habitat for Humanity International’s Office of the CEO.
Download the daily Lent Reflections in full here.
