On Wallin Pond: Hope Springs

I felt like I needed some encouragement the other day and God led me to log onto Paul Tripp's website. One of the headers on his website that day was When Suffering Enters Your Door. What he said so ministered to me. I listened to him several times, pausing, writing down, re-starting. I got the shot in my spirit that I needed to turn my eyes off my circumstances and back on the Lord.

In a nutshell: "I have as much hope in my deepest moments of suffering as I had hope before the suffering began. Hope is never found horizontally, hope is ever only found vertically. And the One who is my hope has not changed even though my circumstances have - dramatically.

That led me to look up some verses that spoke of hope.

Psalm 9:18 - God will never forget the needy, the hope of the afflicted will never perish.

Psalm 31:24 - Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Psalm 33:18, 20, 22 - But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love...We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield...May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

Psalm 52:9 - I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

Psalm 62:5 - Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

Romans 15:13 - May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 1:27 - ...Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Hebrews 6:19 - We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Hebrews 10:23 - Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Several things have encouraged us recently. One was in an article Andy and I read in World Magazine about Elisabeth Elliot. She is currently 87 and has dementia. The article was encouraging to us because it noted that her husband said she "handled dementia just as she did the deaths of her former husbands. 'She accepted those things, [knowing] they were no surprise to God,' Gren said. 'It was something she would rather not have experienced, but she received it.' Hearing those words, Elliot looked up and nodded, her eyes clear and strong. Then she spoke for the first time during the two-hour interview, nodding vigorously: 'Yes'."

It was encouraging to Andy and me because we have heard enough stories of people with dementia and Alzheimer's becoming crotchety and hard to deal with. Andy has confessed to me that he doesn't want to become like that, but I don't think he will. A friend who works with people in nursing homes was telling me that people become more like who they really are when they no longer have the filters that control what they say and how they act. I have assured Andy that he will continue to be who he has always been: loving, caring, kind. I am already seeing a certain patient acceptance, a calm demeanor that is so hopeful.

And speaking of SPRING...this weekend was hopeful in that regard. The temperature is soaring into the 40's, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I can't help thinking that spring is just around the corner. So this afternoon we decided to check out a "new" place to hike that we had heard about.

The Franklin Parker Preserve in Chatsworth, NJ.
We heard about this place from fellow south Jerseyans and Pine Barrens lovers. What a find. We walked and walked on nice sandy trails along a very large lake. On the other side of the lake we saw tundra swans. I wanted to get closer to them to get a better picture but had to be content with using the zoom on my camera. It wasn't for lack of trying to get to the other side of the lake. We had to cross some water in one spot and a rickety bridge in another. Well, it was still worth it. We were exhilarated and cheered by the excursion.

Can you see the beaver dam under the bridge?


My feet did not get wet!


Those white dots are tundra swans, not islands of snow!

This excursion whetted our desire to go back for more exploring. We barely scratched the surface of potential hiking we can do here since the website says there are 20 miles of trails. It was an unexpected treat to see the tundra swans today. They are obviously migrating and stopped here along the way. We also saw some ring neck ducks but they were very shy and flew away as we got closer to them. Even zooming didn't catch them, although I had to try.