Tuesday’s Trench Lesson

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Happy Tuesday to you and welcome to Tuesday’s Trench Lesson! We are going to finish up the five things we tend to put our hope in and my heart’s hope is that you will have been able to let go of any one of these five things to grasp on to the One True Hope! Grab your coffee and your Strand of Faith and jump in this trench with me for a few minutes!

So we’ve talked about putting our hope in ourselves, others and money and let’s face it, we’ve all done this a time or two but hopefully we will be able to catch ourselves before we head down that slippery slope of self-sufficiency. Let’s now talk about the final two things that subconsciously we put our hope in. Drum roll, please….:-)

The fourth thing is our education/careers! Yes, that’s right; and, no, I’m not saying don’t attempt to obtain a higher education. Education is a beautiful thing as knowledge truly unlocks a lot of doors in the mysteries of life. However, when our hope is so focused on a better-paying job so we may obtain material things, or receive a higher level of respect and/or “earn” more friends, we will find that that degree, or certificate or impressive job, and even those friends can truly land us in a different place than we could have imagined.

Another thing to consider is too much college knowledge could cause us to question our faith and all aspects of it! And then where would we be?

Before I move on to the final thing we unknowingly can put our hope in, let me ask you: have you ever had a child who has wandered on over to the addictive side of the tracks in life, and I mean any sort of drug/alcohol or destructive behavior addiction? Oh, I can speak firsthand – and with every finger – on this topic. I don’t think there is anything more painful than to watch your child on the tracks of life and as life picks up speed like a freight train, there’s not a darn thing we can do but often, if we’re honest with ourselves, we run and pick them up so life won’t hit them too hard and injure them!

Well, maybe you don’t do that, but boy, I sure did...over and over again. Yes, I was one of those who put my hope in recovery programs…yes, I said plural, programs! See my hope was for a quick-fix, trying something new to fix the problem within my son – and all along I was a part of the problem -- L and I approached it the same way but always expecting a different result.

Let me say this again, Coffee Hour Friend: this hope can be unconsciously, subconsciously or consciously and with the purest of intentions! See, while recovery programs are life-lines, our hope cannot be in the program itself or ourselves, or even in the one who’s in the program, per say! Why? Because the ultimate goal of any recovery-type program should be to lead the one in recovery to a relationship with the Higher Power, aka, GOD!

Here’s another way to put it: “The endurance required to ‘recover’ requires a commitment. This is needed because there are moments that will make us want to quit because it’s too painful. In this moment, our commitment is tested. We must go through the pain we always ran from as we ran to the thing we became addicted to as a relief from the pain.”

Let me leave you with this prescription for this very issue: 2^nd Corinthians 4:17-18: “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but things which are not seen are eternal.”

Oh, Coffee Hour Friend, I pray your hope would be in the Author of Hope!

Until next week…

Evinda