Hope Hears the Music -- Hope Chronicles 56

I don't like to clean, but I've found that when I sort through old things, I often find unexpected treasures. As I was searching for things to send to Delia in Ecuador, I came across a CD. Honestly, since I typically listen to music in my car, I had wondered where it had gotten to.



The CD is "Old Quarry Road" by Marty Feldhake. Marty is a great guy. I know him from my tenure on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. At that time, he and his family lived at Cedar Campus. Whenever I was at camp, I routinely invaded their table. On the CD is a song called "Hope Hears the Music." It has been so good to hear the wisdom of those words again. The chorus says:

Hope hears the music of the future before it's played

Faith is the courage to dance to it today

To go to Marty's site and listen to the song, click here.

I love the insight there. Hope is believing in the not-yet and acting on it today. It's straining toward the goal, and putting all your efforts into getting there. It is hearing the music of future of God's fulfilled promises. These are promises not about getting rich or having kids or anything like. They are promises about God coming back for us and who He is making each one of us to be. When we look at God's faithfulness over time -- in our lives, in the lives of people we know, or in the lives of those who come before us -- it give us the faith, the courage, to dance to music of the future.



One story I thought of in terms of God's faithfulness was when I was a student and then on staff with InterVarsity. As a senior, I had helped lead a Bible study and often met with a freshman woman named Karyn. She wasn't a believer, but she came faithfully to the study and I loved meeting with her. But, I was so sad to leave knowing she hadn't given her life to Jesus.



Three years later, she ended up at Cedar Campus in the track I was leading. That week she gave her life to God. I had hoped and prayed and I couldn't see the end, but God was gracious and allowed me to glimpse what I had hoped and danced for.



But that was many years ago. Surely, God has been faithful since then. And He has. Though not as concrete as an example, I spent much of my life watching the ease with which some people interacted. I always thought that I could never talk that easily. Still, I have tried to keep putting myself out there bit by bit. Honestly, I didn't think I was getting very far. I somewhat thought that I just be resigned to being that girl holding up the wall. And then I went to She Speaks, and all of you blessed my socks off. I wasn't the girl by the wall. I was in the midst of it all and even noticing others and being able to approach them rather than wait for them to talk to me. Perhaps, that was the shift -- concentrating on someone else.



I'm not sure how to explain it. But, even these hope blogs have been about hearing the not yet, the music in the future, and being willing to dance (sometimes tentatively) to them today.



Do you have a story of God's faithfulness? I would love to hear it. If you would like, you can blog about it and then come back hear and use Mr. Linky. Or you can just leave a comment and we'll hear about it that way.



(And thanks Nicki for your post today. It nudged me to write this one.)