'A room called Remember'

Hopelessness comes when our plans run out: like when we feel trapped in a town we hate, or when we get to uni and can't cover rent, or when we think God will heal a family member but doesn't. We don't always know what 'hope' is until we're face-to-face with hopelessness. Then we realise that we really need hope. We realise how hungry we get for it when we don't have it.

In those times, it can be helpful to think back to when we last saw hope come through. Hope, according to author Frederick Buechner, is about remembering: remembering back to when God strengthened, comforted or healed us in the past, by the power of Jesus. Maybe in our past he's helped us by sharing Jesus through a friend's kind words or actions, or Jesus in anonymous cash in the post, or Jesus in a Bible passage that got us through a rough patch. Let's go back to that time in our memory. It will remind us that God can help us now.

Frederick Buechner named his own hope in God 'the room called Remember' - a memory in his mind that he could bring to mind when hopelessness came. As Christians we always have a way out of our hopelessness; God is the person to go to when things get too much.



So what now? Find your 'room called Remember'. Even if you're not feeling hopeless now, think of a memory to bring you hope in the future.





— SCRIPTURE —

'Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.' Lamentations 3:21 NIV
— SOULFOOD —

Exo 17:1-7, Isa 44:3, John 7:37-41