Wrecked…

Yesterday was not just another day, well at least not for me. I suppose you could say that it started out that way. I mean I got up and turned on the stove, prepped the beans and got the french press ready for deployment. Turned on some music opened my bible and dove in. Got to church and had a great time getting things ready and praying with the staff. Church was good and so was life. So I suppose one could say things were pretty normal. And then it happened and I left absolutely wrecked. Pastor Dan gave the altar call and so I came up with the prayer team to pray for those responding. I found myself standing in front of a man with his son holding tightly to his dad’s side.  I prayed for them, I earnestly prayed for this man and his son. I looked around to see who else was still waiting to receive prayer when I felt the need to ask them a question. I looked at this man and his obviously distraught son and asked if there was anything specific I could pray for. He informed me that his whole world had fallen apart. He told me that his wife who was about 10 feet behind him had just been diagnosed with cancer and they didn’t know what they were going to do. They didn’t know how they were gonna pay for treatment. Then he said holding his son and teenage daughter “How am I gonna do this…” as to refer to life without her. I was stunned all the wind had now left my sail. Here I stood with a beautiful healthy family living a dream with a good home and great friends. While in front of me lies a family who’s life seems to be in ruins. I grabbed as many as I could to pray for this family. Not that other people didn’t need prayer or have needs but for me something was happening on the inside, something that I just couldn’t shake. I believe with all my heart that God can heal this woman. I believe with all my heart that God can give this family peace and we prayed for these things. But I found myself wanting nothing more than to try to give this family a little hope. Even if all that meant was knowing for a few minutes they were not alone. Don’t get me wrong we presented Christ, we explained healing, we offered the hope of knowing who He is. The results, who knows. We’ll continue to follow with this family and be there as much as we can.

You see lately I’ve found myself really stirred by this passage in Romans:

Romans 15 (AMP)

¹³May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.

I keep reading this passage and desperately want to see this transpire in my own life. I love how the amplified translation says that through the experience of our faith our God will fill us with all joy and that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound and be overflowing or bubbling over with hope. I read this and dream of a life that literally overflows and bubbles over with hope. Where hope just leaks out of our pores. I looked up the definition of hope and was blown away by one in particular:

Hope
a person or thing in which expectations are centered:

Think about it like this, we can overflow with hope (the person in which all expectations are centered). In fact we’re called to. What would it look like if we all lived with Jesus our hope, bubbling out of our lives. What would the lives of those that we come into contact with look like if  He literally spilled out of us on to the hopeless. So like I said I’ve been wrecked…