Hope: A Holy Hum

Someone asked me how I was doing the other day … my response was “I feel quiet, hope is a holy hum right now. It’s not huge, loud, bright, or obvious … it is in the background, a constant hum reminding me that the better day is to come, the promise is near, and this mountain can be moved. And right now I simply feel the need to sink into the quiet so I can hear it.”

Hope is not always obvious. It is not always bright and booming, sometimes it whispers in the background. All you can do during those times is quiet the noise of life and increase your awareness of its presence.

As we enter Holy week, let us reflect on the journey the disciples were taking. Jesus knew they had just spent years in His glorious Presence. He knew they had been waiting long for the promise that He came to fulfill. Though Jesus had hinted to them how this may happen, I’m not sure they quite understood. So just before his last week on earth, they see the Lord transfigured before them. A loud, booming, obvious reminder of hope … I am the Messiah … I am the Christ … I am the promise fulfilled … louder than any billboard.

Jesus knew they would need this experience so that as they watched Him dragged away, arrested, bound, beaten, mocked they had a reminder that the circumstances did not change the promise. How many of them fell into darkness, doubt, and unbelief at the unfolding of these last days? Did they stand on what Jesus said or did they watch the promise die with Christ? Did His Word, or what they saw with their own eyes determine their belief?

As He was nailed to and lifted on that cross, most of them had fled the scene. Was it because they so soon forgot? Did they forget how to remain calm in the storm? Were they in despair? Did they feel betrayed? Was their compassion so great that they could not bear witness? Was doubt too near? Were they off somewhere worshipping while they waited? Were they simply quieting themselves to hear the holy hum?

Where do you go when God has given you a promise to steward with open hands? Where do you go when God led you in a certain direction, you gave your exuberant yes, and then the circumstances around you seem to steal His Word piece by piece?

Life with Christ is based on how far we will follow Truth.

Will we trust Him when our eyes cannot see, and our minds cannot comprehend?

This has been my invitation this Lent. To set my face like flint to what the Lord has shown me and walk on. To believe in unbelievable circumstances. To trust when tests come at me from every side. To worship in the waiting. To quiet myself when the noise tries to drown every Word He has spoken to me and listen for the holy hum of hope.

This Holy Week I will follow Him to the cross, knowing I am not watching hope die as the world would have me believe; I am watching it’s victorious birth. Be still, wait, listen, watch. He is coming to redeem the world.