The Freest Prisoner

If you would have asked me what hope was 7 months ago, I really don't think I would have had an answer for you.

One morning in Africa I was reading in Hosea and came across this verse 

"I will lead her into the desert, and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and TRANSFORM THE VALLEY OF TROUBLE INTO A GATEWAY OF HOPE." {hosea 2:14-15}

This is where the question was sparked in my mind. This four letter word, as simple as it may seem, left my mind searching for understanding. Some dictionary definitions of HOPE; a desire with anticipation, longing, confidence, a person or a thing that may help save someone.

Woven through the months on the race the definition of hope continued to become more clear, more profound, more evident and real. "Hope is an anchor for the soul" Hope is light in the darkness, our hope is In Christ & IS Christ.

And recently, since being in Guatemala, I've been reading an incredible book called "Daring to Hope" by Katie Davis Majors, who also wrote the book Kisses from Katie. This book is rocking my world, pointing out so much truth and beauty.The book begins with these words

"It isn't as much about where you move, but about a life of gazing into the face of Jesus. He may move you somewhere across the world. Or He may move you to believe again, to dare again, to reach out again. When the STEADYING LOVE OF CHRIST moves you, it will move you out into the world with the BRAVEST HOPE." 

This has been especially true lately as I will be home in less than 60 days, still uncertain of what is next, not knowing what I want to do. I wish I hadn't spent so much time on the Race stressing about home, about plans unknown, I wish I would have been more present, instead of just sitting and watching the time fly by. Far too  we crave clarity but God just desires for us to come closer. Dreams will always be made clear you "press closer and see them through the sheer love of God"

One of my favorite stories from the book so far is this one,

{it is a little long but it is so worth the read}

"I caught that first glimpse of his leg: skin burned charcoal black, bone exposed, nothing even still alive enough to bleed. I knew this man. As the village drunk of Masese. He would stumble, swearing, through my Bible studies as our group met outside. (When we were in Lesotho there was actually a man just like this who would stumble onto the property, shouting & interrupting church services and Bible studies, but anyways, back to the story) 

I was appalled but not surprised to learn that while he was passed out in the middle of the day, a lantern tipped over and caught his house on fire. The fire also caught his leg, waking him, and he crawled out just in time. 

Again I wondered, Really, God? do you have beauty here? And thus began the season that I thought would heal him but instead healed me. 

Doctors shook their heads, Nobody had the time or resources to deal with this. The nurses were overworked and understaffed.

The doctor explained, "we can amputate, or someone can dress it daily. I don't know if the nurses will have time, but I can show you how. If you don't he will lose his leg. He might lose it anyway."

Something in me that I could not name yet rose up to fight. I couldn't verbalize it, but it was as if my heart screamed, "I lost my daughter. I lost a part of my heart. You will not lose your leg!"

The thoughts of not enough crept in. How would I possibly add another task to my already-full days? I remembered the trust of the widow of Zarephath, how God had taken her meager offering of a lump of flour and had made it ENOUGH. He would take my offering of OBEDIENCE and timid trust and make it enough here. (1 Kings 17)

it goes on through the tedious and time consuming process of Katie, saying yes and giving what little she has everyday.For nearly an hour each day she scraped the dead skin from his wound, "as God scraped at the dead places of her heart" 

"God uses all for good. For His glory. God IS using this." I said and I smiled when new pink life began showing around his wound. I scraped and scrubbed and dressed and cried, and said to anyone who would listen, " we will not lose this leg"

Eventually Mack moved into a little house in their backyard, so he no longer had access to alcohol, which allowed them to dive into longer conversations. 

"He told me all about his life, he told me of the loss of his father and then his mother and then each of his brothers one by one, his loneliness overwhelmed him and he had no reason to stop drinking. He told me how his addiction slowly became something he couldn't control, so he had dropped out of college with only one year left, and began consuming so much alcohol that he could no longer hold down a job. He explained that the drinking masked his hunger so he didn't have to dig through the trash for something to eat.

I assured him he wasn't alone and told him about a Savior born as an infant in a feeding trough and nailed to a tree, Gods provision, I told him of a body broken for him and for me. I didn't even realize as i spoke my tears pooled on the cement porch. In truth, I needed to be assured of those truths as much as he did. 

He questioned everything I said about God's goodness and sovereignty, and without knowing it I answered him and answered myself too in the darkest places of my life. In my head I knew who God was, but with Mack, just knowing wasn't enough. I had to speak it aloud to him over and over. 

After 252 days of wrapping and talking and laughing and crying, new skin covered the once dead area, the leg so many believed to be a lost cause would now walk and even run. And the man that so many thought was hopeless had now been sober for more than 6 months. 

This healed man walked into my kitchen grinning from ear to ear. "I believe it," he announced. Today i believe Jesus is the Son of God. 

I didn't try to contain my excitement and tears as I danced around the kitchen that day.

Hope is powerful, Hope is persistent, Hope is light from darkness, Hope is life from death. When our situation seems dark, lost, unsalvageable,

PRISONERS OF HOPE 

He whispers to your heart, are those who 

look at a stump and expect a shoot

look at a desert and expect a mighty oak

look at their circumstances and expect the Branch Jesus!

He is the only one who can bring beauty from ashes, and redeem, renew and restore, to be a prisoner of hope is to be the freest of all.

The Lord has chosen me, He has chosen you! Snatched you out of the fire, tending to your wounds day after day after day, with His persistent, never giving up, always and forever love. 

Seeking you out, speaking truth and life over you, as he cleans, wraps, binds, and scrapes away the dead things so that new life can SPRING UP. so you can be made WHOLE. 

So this thing that seemed unsalvageable, impossible & broken is renamed and called WHOLE & HEALED. 

though you may not look the same as before, though you may have scars from the process of healing it does not change that fact that YOU ARE HEALED AND BEAUTIFUL AND WORTH REJOICING OVER. 

our very lives are evidence of his love, his healing power, and the hope we can always hold onto because we know that He is holding onto us!

Also for our last 2 months we are english teachers at a school to a wide age range of students, and it has been so sweet and beautiful, so here are a few pictures of our time here thus far.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS!!!! I HOPE YOU ALL ARE DOING GREAT AND ARE FILLED WITH THE ALWAYS AND FOREVER NEVER GIVING UP LOVE OF OUR FATHER!

-JORDAN :)

#theworldrace #worldrace #guatemala #thefreestprisoner #hope #daringtohope #hosea #beauty #gatewayofhope