by Rev Don Schatz

Kyrie Eleison!

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
Hebrews 6:19; New International Version

Kyrie Eleison.
Lord Have Mercy.
Christe Eleison.
Christ Have Mercy.
Kyrie Eleison.
Lord Have Mercy.

‘Hope’.  Someone once wrote, ‘hope is the same thing as remembering’.  Time and again, the Psalmists remind their readers to look to the past, to remember, when they are in need of hope.  Our memories are full of examples of God’s faithfulness.  Those memories focus our need for hope through the lens of God’s constant presence in our lives.  He has always been there for us.  Remember.  Hope.

Hope is more than crossed fingers, trying to wish something into being.  Our hope is not a wish or a good thought.  Our hope is Jesus.

The writer to the Hebrew Christians wrote, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”  What a marvelous image for hope—an anchor.  If prayer can be defined as practicing the presence of God—believing that God is present and so putting that belief into action by talking to him—then perhaps hope can be defined as practicing what we remember.  First, it is remembering to remember!  We get too swept up in the present moment and its crises and forget to look back, to remember that God has always been faithful to us.  We forget to hope.

We forget to look around us in that present moment as well, and discover that God is still present with us, to us, for us.

Where do you find yourself in need of hope right now in your life?  Have you practiced remembering?  Pray the Kyrie.  Kyrie Eleison.  Christe Eleison.  Kyrie Eleison.  God remembers his promise.  He is with you.  Remember right along with him.

Pray:    Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.  Forgive my short memory.  Forgive my inactive memory.  Empower my practice of hoping by looking to the myriad examples of your grace and mercy in my life.  I do not ask you to give me hope Oh Lord, so much as I ask you to enable me to practice hope, believing, trusting, knowing that you are continually present to me.  Amen.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO