March 7, 2008

In follow up from last week’s reflection, I spent 4 days with my grandmother. She died early Tuesday morning. As I told one friend, since we all face death in this world, I wish all could die as she did: with peace, without pain, with love, without fear and with God.

My week clearly affected the chapel talk I gave for the Napa students this morning. I shared about hope. Had you been there you would have seen the two orchid plants I brought from home. One has been in full bloom for several weeks. The other has a long flower spike that I hope will be full of yellow blooms by the end of this month.

Two factors affect my hope’s strength and power. The level of my desire to enjoy the blossoms and the level of my confidence that they will bloom. I know that something could happen. On the trip to the school, the pot could have tipped and broken the flower spike. Disease could strike. This is actually a depressing list, so let’s move on to my point.

We are conditioned to hedge our anticipation in order to protect ourselves from disappointment. It’s easy to allow the hits we take in life – like my grandmother’s death – to wear our hope down. Paul took this risk head on and provided a completely positive perspective to the challenges we face.

He suggests we look at life this way. Of course we’ll face trouble. But look how strong that can make us. And people who don’t give up have awesome characters. And look at the promise of life those who have God’s character have! That is a hope that will not disappoint.

And then Paul delivers the punch line. This hope will not disappoint us, because look how much God loves us. Yes, we can get consumed with the tough stuff. (I’m talking about that tomorrow in Rohnert Park) We can also be consumed with God’s love.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-5

With full commitment,
Pastor Steve