HOPE

i just got off the phone with a friend who is probably the most wounded person i have known in my life, and i was really messed up about it. i was asking God to come to her rescue but my head and my heart were still messed up for a while...but THEN I realized this strange laughter rising up in me, and God started showing me where he is taking her! it is a wonderful future. it is real, this future, already purchased by the sacrifice of Jesus.

to hope and pray could look like crossing your fingers and throwing some words out there. but to really hope in JESUS is to DANCE in the midst of injustice because you KNOW it will be made right. it is to see people suffering around you and all over the world and to LAUGH. HAHAHAHAHA I laugh at you, because you are not the ultimate reality. Jesus has already won, and now He's just working it out, with us as His partners! as His partners, we need to be on the same page with Him...we need to choose to hope in the strength of His love, so that we are not overwhelmed and paralyzed by pain, and we can be ready to receive the victory with hands open!

I'm thinking this is how we can partner with Him as He works out the restoration of the world:

1) Stepping into pain and healing it with His love. we can do this if we really believe love > pain. (a revelation from Angel Huang). I just learned this cool thing: in the days before Jesus came and dwelled with us, God told people to stay away from people who were "contaminated" by sin because they would be infected by it and die. sin was a contagious disease. but after Jesus died and came back to life for us all, He showed that His love is stronger than death itself! and suddenly, God started telling us to go and lay our hands on people with leprosy and they would be healed instead of the leprosy spreading, because that Love would be more contagious than any disease! but we must catch this Love, first...I can honestly say I'm glad I had that whole experience of depression/cutting/addiction, because it was a strong experience of His love when He stepped in and healed me, and now I have more of His love to pass on =] and also, I can finally really believe that God can heal anything in the world, because I've seen it first hand!

2) Prayer. I will pray and ask God to move and move us until justice and healing are a reality for everyone. "Prayer is opposing the current reality" (Jamie Tan). and I will ask You because "I believe that You move at the sound of my voice!" We move at the sound of Your voice, and You move at ours!! Amazing!!!