Category: Hope

Some of us ran out of hope a long time ago.

Maybe that's where you are right now, or you know someone who is. This one's for you. It will lift your heart.

First, some background. As Scott Lohman neared his goal, life was good. After years of seminary classes and an internship at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Downers Grove, IL, he was almost ready. In a few weeks he would be ordained as a Lutheran pastor.

Then came what looked like the end of everything.

But God had other plans.

______________

(Chris James, a pastor at Immanuel, told Scott's story for the February, 2012, edition of their church newsletter. He graciously gave permission to reprint his article, slightly edited.)

THE HAND OF GOD

On Monday, November 28, 2011, at 3:30 pm, Vicar Scott Lohman suffered an aortic dissection. Into the middle of this horrific tragedy, the Hand of God reached down to intervene.

Scott should have been in his garage by himself that afternoon, but his wife, Gina, called to report a harmless car accident, so he headed to Interstate-55 –that was the Hand of God.

Soon after he arrived at the accident scene, Scott passed out. An ambulance which police routinely summoned for accidents, waited, ready to take him to the hospital —that was the Hand of God.

The closest hospital was St. Joseph's in Joliet, nationally recognized for both stroke and heart care –that was the Hand of God.

Emergency Room physicians planned to wait until morning to follow up on Scott's tests. Then Gina's cousin, Andy, an off-duty St. Joseph's physician, stopped by. He said, "He's had a stroke; he needs help." —that was the Hand of God.

A dozen nurses, six doctors and multiple test results surrounded the patient. Only Nikita, an ICU nurse, noticed Scott had two different pulses in his wrists, which signaled a heart problem —that was the Hand of God.

The heart surgeon told waiting family and friends what happened alongside busy Route I-55 that afternoon. Scott suffered an aortic dissection, which caused his stroke, then traveled to both arms and legs, as well as his brain. Scott most likely would not survive the surgery. Yet five and a half hours later he emerged. He lived – that was the Hand of God.

The surgeon warned he could only repair the valve to Scott's heart. Yet during the surgery, he was able to repair Scott's ascending aorta, too, and restore blood flow back to his brain — that was the Hand of God.

Vascular damage to Scott's left arm was irreversible and he would lose it, said the surgeon. Yet the next day Scott had a pulse in his left wrist –that was the Hand of God.

No one promised Scott would wake up from his coma, and if he did, whether he would recognize anyone or ever move again. He did, he does, and oh, how he moves! —that was the hand of God.

Because Scott's kidneys were wrecked he requred daily dialysis. His only hope would be a kidney transplant. And then, his kidneys were healed — that was the Hand of God.

Scott could not breathe without the ventilator. No one knew if he ever would. Now the vent is gone and he is back to his old, chatty self –that was the hand of God.

That dark November night Gina said good-bye to her husband. By the Hand of God she and the kids have received him back home, where they are all looking forward to a new chapter.

Praise the Lord all my soul; all my inmost being, praise His Holy Name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits–who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. –Psalm 103:1-5

________________________

An upadate: On July 1 Scott Lohman will be ordained as an assistant pastor at Immanuel. With Immanuel's sponsorship, Scott will concentrate on planting and pastoring a new church in nearby Minooka, where the Lohmans have lived for several years.

_____________________

Every one of us can recall times we prayed with all our hearts and saw no evidence God heard us. No Scott Lohman outcome for us.

But God does hear us. Even when life makes no sense, we can trust His love for us because of Jesus (John 3:16.) We who believe can know that God's hand is on our lives just as surely as on Scott's. In every circumstance, He promises us strength for each day (Psalm 46:1.)

That makes it safe to give up fretting, even in hard times, and trust. Let God be God.

That's not fatalism. That's peace, the peace that passes all human understanding.

May you know that peace, my friends,

Lenore

Looking for hope? Read this man’s story

June 15, 2012
Nobody saw it coming. Catastrophes are like that.

This is the face of one woman in the aftermath of unimaginable horror, Japan's 9.0 earthquake and the devastating tsunami that quickly followed.

You and I have not lived what she experienced, but we know that face. We know those tears and those inner groans of, "Oh, please, not that!"

Our world can shake and crumble around us without an earthquake. We can be swamped and drowning without a tsunami.

All it takes is being given that diagnosis we never wanted to hear. Or a day when we wave goodbye to our husband or wife who never makes it home from work. A sports accident that turns our healthy, strong son or daughter into a paraplegic. The young adult child with so much potential who chooses a path we know will lead to unhappiness. The rumored pink slip that awaits us when we thought our job was safe. Home values that plummet and investments that tank when we thought we had saved up some money for the future.

Each of us has our own list. We watch, we cry, we pray. We scream, "Why?" into our long, sleepless nights. And we feel utterly helpless.

That's when we wear the same face as the woman in this photo, the face of fear and dread and hopelessness. She cannot escape her reality and neither can we.

But we can find refuge. Listen to the wonderful words of Psalm 46:1-3 and verse 7, followed by Isaiah 41:10:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging . . .

The LORD Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress . . .

So do not fear, for I am with you;

do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

The hard truth of life is that we have no truly safe place here on this earth. No guarantees of a perfect life in this imperfect world.

No place to run except into the sheltering arms of God, who so loved the world that he sent his only Son to earth to die on a cross and live again. For you. For me.

In His strength we weather our storms and go on, leaning on the everlasting arms.

His peace,

Lenore

Where can we go when disaster strikes in our world?

March 14, 2011
Another Thanksgiving Day is upon us. I love it that every time we say the name
of this holiday it reminds us of what it's all about: giving thanks.

Maybe some of us don't feel much like giving thanks right now. Maybe we're slogging through a rough patch that shows no sign of smoothing out. Every day starts and ends with one thought, one prayer: Please let this be over–soon!

Even if things are good in our lives, probably most of us can remember a time when we floundered and fretted. When that's where we are and life feels empty, how are we supposed to feel thankful?

All I can do is tell you what helps me when I find myself walking that long, lonesome road.

That's when I hang on to what I know by faith and by experience: God is still God and His Word is still true. Even if I feel abandoned, the Bible over and over says He loves me. What's more, He doesn't love me because of my shining faith and my perfect life, only because I believe in Jesus.

   [Jesus said] "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me     and have believed that I came from God."              –John 21:27                                                                                                                                                                                       -Then I search out Bible verses that reassure me. Sometimes I write them down and keep them with me so I can repeat them over and over to myself. Like this one:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.                                 –Romans 8:35, 37-39

When I feel weak and overwhelmed this verse reminds me I can draw on power beyond my own:

[The Apostle Paul says] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."                                                                               –2 Corinthians 12:9

When we're feeling down it's easy to lose hope for the future, isn't it? That's when I go to this promise:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."                                                                                 –Jeremiah 29:11

As for what lies beyond, here's the greatest promise of all:

[Jesus says] "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son in to the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."    –John 3:16-17

So, it's Thanksgiving. Time for officially thanking the Giver. I forget sometimes that "ordinary" things are a blessing. Like being able to breathe in and out. Like eyes that work. Like the ability to call up happy memories. It took me way too long but I've learned life feels, um, happier when I remember to thank Him every day.

Each of the Bible verses I've quoted is underlined in my Bible. It took me way too many years before I picked up a pen and started underlining, but it has blessed my life. Countless times I've opened my old NIV and gone from one underlined verse to the next. Every time I feel my spirits lift.

Be wiser than I was and start now. Find Bible verses that speak to your heart and your spirit and mark them. Think through how they apply to you and your life. Keep them handy to pass on to someone who's hurting.

By the way, any time you feel alone, think of this verse and the word picture it paints. This is how God feels about you and me:

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.                                    –Zephaniah 3:17

Imagine! Now there's a reason to give thanks . . .

Here's to a JOY-filled Thanks-giving day, every day,

Lenore

P. S. I'm thankful for you, my friend, for taking time to read my words.

Thanks-living any day of the year, even in tough times

November 24, 2010
Even non-tennis players found the news from Wimbledon captivating. Two players, one American, one from the Netherlands, hang on for eleven hours and five minutes and make the history books for the longest tennis match ever. Oh, the cheers! Oh, the glowing forecasts of the winner's meteoric rise to the ranks of tennis greats!

Fast forward to the next day, when the winner, John Isner, plays another match. This one he loses, after just one hour and fourteen minutes.

This is what stunning defeat at Wimbledon looks like.

This is what losing feels like. Anywhere. At any age.

I think there's a BIG message here, for us as individuals and also for us as moms and dads.

Last one first. Lots of us parents tell our kids over and over that they're winners. It's like the carrot held in front of the donkey. We warn them if they don't work hard enough or practice long enough they might (oh, horrors!) not come in first and they wouldn't want to be a loser, would they?

That sounds like they will be either/or, doesn't it? Sure, somebody wins the race or the tennis match or gets the highest score … this time.

On the tennis court, in the classroom and in all of life, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Sometimes we feel on top of the world and sometimes we're scraping bottom.

We do our kids a big favor when we help them learn to handle losing gracefully. Of course, we rave when they win. Do we cheer with as much gusto when they do their best and come in second? Or fifth? Or when they don't make the team or win the scholarship?

That's important, because we parents set the tone for how our children see themselves. And what we want more than anything is for our kids to know we love them for themselves, whether they win or lose, isn't it?

The other way we help them is when we handle their losses (and our own) well and role-model being a good sport. We stay calm when the umpire gives a bad call. We don't deny the pain of losing, even as we comfort our children with love and encouragement. But then we let it go.

From this side of rearing children I understand way better that the small things turn out to be the big things. All those everyday incidents and our offhand remarks add up. The youngster who learns to stay positive grows into the young adult who can handle life's ups and downs without being crushed. We parents play a big part in that.

I'll bet you, too, know adults who fall apart every time things don't go their way. They're not much fun to be around, are they? My grandmother had no patience with that. She'd seen her share of hard times and she would say, "Oh, for Pete's sake. You're still breathing, aren't you? So put today behind you and go on. Tomorrow's another day."

That's not a bad way to look at life, is it? Not for any of us. Grandma's old wisdom still makes sense. As long as we're breathing, there's always another day.

And for John Isner, there's always another Wimbledon.

Blessings,

Lenore

Any kind of loss can knock us flat. Job loss, separation or divorce, the death of a loved one, the end of a friendship or relationship, even moving from one place to another.

The life lesson from Wimbledon: Winning isn’t forever, but cheer up, neither is losing

June 28, 2010
We see the images and wonder how anyone could survive this. And yet…people did.

You've heard the unbelievable stories. Here are two that especially touched my heart. I think these two people have much to teach you and me.

One is Romel Joesph, a Haitian-born music teacher…who was born blind, or so sight-impaired that he is legally blind.

Imagine yourself pinned beneath rubble for eighteen hours, unable to move, not able even to see. Imagine knowing all along that while you were on the third floor when the earthquake struck, your pregnant wife had been on the first floor and you could not know whether she was alive or dead. (She did not survive.)

Romel Joseph told interviewers how he got through that wrenching time. I caught his story while driving and later looked it up in the N.P.R. archives. Here's the gist of how he survived the horror.

"I knew I could not allow my mind to wander and to keep thinking only about rescue. So I decided to keep a strict schedule, hour by hour. I set aside the first twenty minutes for prayer and meditation," Joseph says. "After that I focused my mind on favorite pieces of music I knew, one at a time. I forced myself to concentrate, note by note, as precisely as if I were directing an orchestra. In effect, that took me to another place in my mind. For that time I did not feel my pain, did not allow myself to wonder whether help would arrive.

"Hour by hour, that's what I did. First the prayer and meditation, then the music. So I not only killed time, but I reminded myself I was not alone. I told myself I was brushing up on my directing skills and I mentally escaped the space where I was."

Romel Joseph is no stranger to tragedy. He founded the New Victorian School in 1991, in Port-au-Prince, to teach music to Haitian children. That school burned to the ground exactly ten years to the day before this earthquake once again leveled the school.

Friends dug him out after eighteen hours lying there with his leg pinned and crushed under concrete. Surgeons also repaired his severely fractured left hand, but they cannot say whether he'll regain full function…and what is a violinist without a left hand that works?

But Joseph plans to rebuild as soon as he can. As he puts it, "I need more than an earthquake to make me stop my work in Haiti!"

I think this man shows us how in the midst of fears and troubles we can deliberately turn our thoughts to other things, to people we love, to happier times and, yes, to God. Our situation may not change, but our ability to cope will.

Another rescued woman in a television interview (couldn't find her story in print) told what enabled her to hang on. She said something like this. "I lost everything except what matters most," she said, holding up her Bible. "I could not move, there in the dark, so I searched my memory and remembered some Psalms. I kept repeating them over and over, especially Psalm 46. God brought me through this, praise be, and here I am."

For thousands in Haiti, this was–and is–the worst of times. Thank God most of us will not be caught in anything like that earthquake. Yet I think these two accounts teach us a lot about surviving our own fears and sorrows without crumbling under the load.

Perhaps you love Psalm 46, too. I often find myself going back to my old, dog-eared Bible, to reread sections I've underlined in the past. Always, that includes these favorite verses of Psalm 46.

Psalm 46

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
   an ever-present help in trouble.

² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
   and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

³ though its waters roar and foam
   and the mountains quake with their surging…

⁵God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her at break of day…

¹⁰ "Be still, and know that I am God;
   I will be exalted among the nations,
   I will be exalted in the earth."

¹¹ The LORD Almighty is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our fortress.
   Selah

God's peace and blessings,

Lenore

Learning from Haiti survivors how to make it through our tough times

January 27, 2010
I confess. I have Christmas cards and letters still waiting to be mailed and gifts to be wrapped. (And please, could we not talk about my list of neglected everyday chores?)

If you're sharing this uncomfortable boat with me, you may be thinking, "Now if I can just get through Christmas…"

That's a trap. As soon as we do that we rob our days of the joy that comes with reading letters from friends and thinking how to please the people we love. I think it's time for a vision adjustment and a transfusion. (Sorry, I can't produce an extra five or six days…)

Pause for breath and let's drink in some energy for our spirits:

Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don't quite know how to put our love into words. Harlan Miller

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. Charles Dickens

This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ. Frank McKibben

Take Christ out of Christmas, and December becomes the bleakest and most colorless month of the year. A. F. Wells

The Light that shines from the humble manger is strong enough to lighten our way to the end of our days. Vita-Rays

God rest you merry, lovely readers. Let us rejoice-in-the-midst of the rubble all around us. That same Light will power our personal "energy cells," one day after another.

Question for you: What's your biggest hurdle in this wonderful Christmas time?

Lenore

Are you running out of steam before Christmas?

December 17, 2009
What makes some people maintain that spunk and feisty spirit into old age? Is it a temperament they're born with or do they choose it?

I've wondered about that for years,. The other day I got an e-mail from a relative with a photo of my aunt, who lives in Minnesota. Aunt Elsie is my father's baby sister and the only one of those five siblings still living on earth.

At age 101, she maintains the spirit and humor I always loved as a child. Now she lives in an assisted-living residence and walks with a walker. When someone commented she gets around very well, she said yes, she does. Then she smiled her old smile and said, "And I would dance, too, if I had a partner!"

That doesn't surprise me one bit. I haven't seen Aunt Elsie for years, but I always delighted in how she seemed to have fun wherever she was. I remember so well her laugh and her sparkling eyes.

Yet that didn't flow out of getting all the breaks in life. She and her husband worked hard running their own business. Childless for many years, they adopted a daughter and shortly thereafter had three kids of their own. At age four their oldest boy received a brain injury as the result of another driver hitting him while he crossed the street. He came out of the coma, but never was the same, never able to keep up with his siblings.

But life went on and so did Aunt Elsie and Uncle Earl and the rest of the family. That catastrophe took awhile for all of them to take in and get used to. Mostly they coped. They never doubted that God let their son live for a reason and they wouldn't look back. They suffered through all the usual emotions and grief, but they survived…and kept on believing, kept on loving.

These two lived through the usual ups and downs of rearing children to adulthood–and much more, besides. Aunt Elsie dealt with illnesses and the death of two husbands. But she never gave up. She lives on and laughs and jokes.

All along the way, she had choices to make. Would she become a harpy? A bitter woman, angry at God, perpetually expecting disaster? And who would have blamed her if she had.

But she didn't. She chose to go on believing that God loves her and her family, and watches over all of them. I'm betting she has read Psalm 139 over and over, sometimes looking for answers to her whys and sometimes soaking up reassurance.

Since my mom died before she reached age 55, I look at older women for role models of how to do it. I look at Aunt Elsie and all the others who choose to go on living with gusto and faith every day of their lives.

To me they're shining examples of the truth of Psalm 92:12, 14-15:

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree…They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, "The LORD is upright' he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

Let's choose to be ageless…fresh and green every day of our lives!

Here's wishing you JOY in your journey through life,

Lenore

Your comments welcomed!

The secret of youth–and it doesn’t come in a jar

October 21, 2009
It's only September and already I miss the early morning sun. Ever since I was a little a girl, something within me rebels against getting up in the dark. I remember saying, "But nobody should have to get up in the dark, it doesn't even feel like morning yet!"

Even then early morning sunlight gladdened my heart. It still does. As Grandma used to say, it "gets me going."

But hey, I'm a big girl now. I know the routine. So I'll get up in the dark like most people do and I'll "get going" on my own. Still, as shorter days and longer nights press in, I need pansies. We discovered them as winter bloomers when we lived in the Northwest, with its long fall and winter seasons of cool, cloudy and rainy. Pansies don't care about the weather. No wonder I got addicted in no time.

We're in (drier) northern California now, but we read the handwriting of the seasons all around. That signals it's time to plant our annual guarantee of dependable winter sunshine: pansies. For me, their smiling faces brighten the shortest, dreariest day. We always plant some at the front door and also the back, so we see them all day. The other day while I ran errands, that terrific guy I married bought a bunch of them, then planted window boxes for the front railing and a pot for the back deck.

Whatever the weather I look at these blooms and see a visible symbol of hope. Nothing keeps them down, not clouds nor rain. Not even snow, as we discovered while growing them in the Northwest, where we sometimes had snow that lasted a day or two. Pansies may hang their heads for awhile, but then they pop back up, smiling. During cold spells they sort of fold into themselves. But then the sun shines and there they are, still blooming and brightening their corner of the world.

I look at these bright blooms and feel joy, even in dim light and on dark days. Does that sound over-simplistic? Maybe it is. On the other hand, it makes sense to train ourselves to savor the joy in simple everyday things. Otherwise, if it takes, say, a huge diamond ring to make us happy, we probably will wait a long time.

My grandmother was good at finding joy in life. I thought she had a gift for it. Now I understand it's a habit she developed. Like you and me, Grandma had the choice whether to see the light or fasten on the dark. Every day we choose to take joy in what's in front of us–like pansies–or clump around feeling deprived because we want something "special."

Truth is, every day is special, a gift. Every morning arrives with a fresh supply of joy and hope…if we choose to see it. If we run out by day's end, tomorrow we begin again, with a fresh supply.

The question for you and me is, how observant are we? Besides, beyond surfacey things like pansies, in this messed-up world where can we look for joy and hope?

I found some suggestions…

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

                                                                                    –Psalm 90:14

For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands.

                                                                                    –Psalm 92:4

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

                                                                            –Psalm 62:5

Here's wishing you JOY and hope in the midst of life, a fresh supply every morning and may you know the Giver.

Lenore

Question for you:   What brings you joy and hope? Your sharing can bless the rest of us. (Just click on the word "comments" in the small print below, then follow directions.)

Find joy and hope, in every ordinary day

September 22, 2009