I'm glad you are here to celebrate!
Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link.
Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.
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I am surrounded by white Christmas lights and the smell of freshly baked Christmas cookies. Packages are wrapped. I'm drinking coffee out of a festive mug and stacking words like I have endless time. If you were to peek in the frosty window with snow softly falling, you would see the markings of holiday perfection. Your heart would warm.
My heart is warm, too, only because I'm clunking through the season with a know-so hope. This advent season, I have one job.
BELIEVE.
It's not easy to believe, especially when things don't go how you think they should go.
Sometimes believing gets mixed up with hoping. I'm learning there are two kinds of hope:
- hope-so hope
- know-so hope
My job is to believe in a know-so hope. This is faith. It's not easy to keep believing in good when everything is unraveling. The truth is, holding tight to a deep faith is a battle.
Looking through the window into someone's life can be deceiving. Things are not picture-perfect for our family.
I wrote a post on a private blog where I'm allowing our current story to unfold raw and real. These words spilled out:
Sometimes honesty is hideous.
This week, my friend, Christy Rush-Levine, wrote me a note in response. It said:
The hideous truth of your story is that it is a beautiful story.
The writer in me appreciated the juxtaposition of her words. It is true. Sometimes the most beautiful stories are hideous as they unfold. It is an act of faith to believe there will be beauty out of the grime.
Today I celebrate the know-so hope (also called faith) that ugly stories can turn beautiful.
I'm glad you're here to celebrate too.
Just in case you missed this week's writing post, make sure to check it out. It's about what to say in a writing conference and is filled with good stuff!
I cling to hope for you, Ruth, for me too. It feels like the way to live life fully, no matter the challenges, there will be another day to try again. Wishing a Merry Christmas to you and all the family!
ReplyDeleteRuth, so right there with you. My boys are struggling and struggling and struggling and it seems like things will never change. My heart breaks for them. And yet I know I have to keep praying that He will meet them and to believe that God has good things in store… So hard.
ReplyDeleteIt is in our believing time that words can be found, Carol. Yes, we need to keep on believing so our prayers can be answered.
DeleteHope does live through the struggles. I'm praying each day that healing happens for all. Hugs all around!
ReplyDeleteI never thought of there being two kinds of hope, but you are oh so right. I always find inspiration from you, Ruth.
ReplyDeleteYour words are so true. Faith is hard to cling to as we know...So... Hope....During the very hard chapters of life.
ReplyDeleteRuth, since the word believe is my 2016 one word that guides my journey, I was intrigued by the two kinds of hope you shared. I will reflect on this before bedtime tonight=> "It is an act of faith to believe there will be beauty out of the grime." It is easy to forget that grime lets us find the message we need.
ReplyDeleteYour "know-so hope" spreads out to others so we can know-so also. Thanks for staying in the struggle to make beautiful words shine.
ReplyDeleteOh, I loved your post today! Know-so hope is vital to life especially in the hard times! It is also those times that the hope in my heart wavers between hope-so hope and know-so hope. In those times I need to fight the good fight of believing. Thank you for getting me to think this morning!
ReplyDelete"...holding tight to a deep faith is a battle" and consequently so painful. I appreciate your bold sharing of what we all know-so well but don't show as readily. Here's to fighting on with hope.
ReplyDeleteThere is a beauty in all our stories - sometimes, it's just a kernel or shadow of beauty, but it's beauty never the less. I love Christy's quote...so much to think about there.
ReplyDeleteRuth, I love your focus on the know-so hope that we all need for the difficult times. Praying that this will be a season of rest and renewal and joy for your family.
ReplyDeleteThere is beauty in all of it - the messiness and the hard times. I love that phrase "know-so hope." Thanks once again for allowing this space for celebrations of all kinds.
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