Daring to Hope in the Unseen

What if you could walk a path where everything just worked out exactly as you hoped, where you knew exactly what would happen with each step? A lot of us try to live our lives that way, ‘control freaks’ is probably the best term for them. Seems like a lot of hard work to me, it also seems like a somewhat dull way to live. And when things don’t go according to plan, for many of these ‘control freaks,’ their world seems to fall apart because they’ve put their hope in themselves, they've put their faith in themselves. Actually, we all do this to some degree or another.

Our lectionary passage invites us into a similar journey; however our hope and our faith is not centered on ourselves, but rather in the unseen. We are given a destination but the path there is not clear, there is room for surprises and the blessings of the unexpected (which can stretch us). It is not laid out perfectly for us like our google maps navigation systems, but we are left with a faith and assurance that we will get there despite maybe being taken in a different direction.

But when life feels like a maze, doubling back on itself, sometimes even with great degrees of uncertainty about what is around the corner, how do we invite others into this journey? In fact, how do we invite the ‘control freaks,’ or those who are tired, or those who are hurting, to join us in this walk of faith, because we’re called to invite everyone who crosses our path into this journey.

Our passage this week will help us to understand this challenge and how we might be faithful to this journey. It speaks to the weary, the curious, the hesitant and yes, even to the ‘control freaks,’ because it offers us a vision of a journey bathed in grace and with such a hopeful expectation that others around us might even gravitate to this journey.

Read and meditate on our lectionary passage Hebrews 11:1-16 and reflect on its meaning for your faith journey.

Blessings

Josh