Choose Hope

Choose Hope

For the last month at Trinity Community Church we have been doing a sermon series on HOPE.  We recognize that to live a life of hope takes daily participation.  The journey to hope is often through suffering, in which God is present every step of the way.  Hope changes our perspective because we are changed by hope.  And finally, yesterday we studied Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and discussed how hope begins with a CHOICE.

God the Father made a way for us to be brought back in relationship with Him through the work of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, to receive the gift of salvation it all starts with a decision that each and every one of us has to make.  We must choose hope!

This past week I was blessed to be able to attend the Evangelical Covenant Church’s pastor and leaders’ conference, Midwinter.  Throughout the week this idea of hope and choice weighed heavily on my heart.  The different preachers taught on living life together and the element of choice that is involved in living into the people God has created us to be.

This phenomenon of CHOICE is so intrinsic to our day to day living that I think we often overlook the importance of the options set before us.  We can get caught up in circumstances and forget that we have the ability to participate…for good or for bad.  We forget that “lack of choice” or inaction also plagues our reality.  In choosing not to act we can often have greater impact than we could ever imagine.

So I set before you a challenge: CHOICE your present and your future!  Understand the power given to each of us to participate in our circumstances.  Yes, God’s grace is present and ABUNDANT (for the times we choose wrong, stumble, or inevitable make mistakes)!  We do not earn our relationship with God and we cannot simply choose blessing…YET, let us also not be categorized by inaction.

No one will make me eat right, exercise, see a counselor, seek out a social group, or find a routine that works towards my health, (mind, body, and soul).  No one is going to make me read my bible or take intentional time with God.  I have been given the ability to choose…thus I seek to embrace that CHOICE!

We are offered many things in this life…may we never forget that we are also given the privilege to engage in the process of being made whole.  We are invited into relationship with God.  We are invited into relationship with one another.  And we are invited to choose HOPE.

Have we become silent?

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." MLK Jr

In honor of a tremendous man who inspired a nation and the world, I would like to take some time to reflect on the example set by Martin Luther King Jr.  The quote above is one of my favors, but more than that it always causes a rumbling in my spirit that pushes me to act.  Why?  Because in honest reflection of my life, I must admit that often I choose to be silent about things that matter.

Like it or not, I exist in a position of power.  I am American, middle-class, and white.  Remaining silent in the face of injustice is easy.  It is comfortable.  It takes no effort or intentional NOT to act.  Sure there are circumstances in which I am the voiceless and marginalized, but I am also aware that I have power and influence.  Therefore to remain silent is to push those in the margins of society further into the shadows. 

Inaction is action, because whether intentional or not my failure to act does not contribute to the reconciliation of the world…it deters it.  Will I seek to hear the voiceless?  Will I fight to empower those who are told they do not have a say?  Will I make space at the table for all points of view to be heard?

Injustice sadly did not end with the civil rights movement.  Injustice is something we must all continue to fight to rectify.  As a person of faith and integrity Martin Luther King Jr fought injustice.  He did not remain silent and he inspired others to speak and act.  “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”  Let us not be silent this day.  May we never be silent.  May we continue to fight injustice and fight for all people to have a voice.