The Faces of Hope- Power and Surrender

Earned lesson number one, as covered in my previous posting, was that abiding hope is long suffering.  As discussed, abiding for any period of time requires one to discover the active nature of the term, beyond its passive exterior.  Earned lesson number two has more to do with results and actions related to abiding hope.  Lesson number two is that hope has a face of both power and surrender.

Power.  What a word, right?  One glance at the news, ourselves or an experience driving on a highway displays the different facets of power.  Power evokes.  We see so many striving for it.  And sometimes, combined with hope, it is survival at its core.

Last night Robin Roberts was doing a special for 20/20.  The show detailed the lives of two of the three girls who were abducted and lived chained in a house for 10 years or so.  One of the girls shared about their only connection to the outside world being a little black and white TV that was kept in the basement.  As life seemed to pass them by, they would catch glimmers of hope, one that seemed to catch Robin off guard.  One of the girls shared that one of the most encouraging things she saw was just after Hurricane Katrina.  Robin's family had been in the wake of the storm, and Robin was visibly upset while reporting on the devastation and that her family were all okay.  Amanda Berry, shared that she saw Robin's resiliency and was encouraged that one day she too would be free.  Today she is.

At one point in the program they showed the girls tracing the outline of a small metal home decor item that their perpetraitor brought home from a craft fair.  They would trace it over and over.  It was the word HOPE.  This also inspired the title for the upcoming book, Hope, A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland.

Hope paired with power can persevere under extraordinary circumstances.  

However, power, unharnessed under hope can become corrosive to one's self and those that surround them.  It appears that the power of hope must also be bridled by surrender.  Surrender itself can be taken in so many ways.  It, like abiding, can appear weak, passive or lacking of soul.  However, coming to the point of surrender requires the giving up of self, and that in itself is no easy feat.  

For me, this is the new angel I wrestle.  Surrendering in hope has brought me to see the ugliness in pride.  As pride is revealed to me I begin to wonder- how much pride can one person contain?  And then another instance occurs where I bear offense, I  become self preserving, and begin to swallow my self in self.  Thankfully the action and result of abiding hope seems to be a status of surrender.  God is able to get my eyes off myself and look to Him for defining, for Calling, and for extending grace.  Power and pride are cancerous and slowly choke out the life of grace. Hope balanced in power and surrender draws me to say.... I leave my pride at the door, and choose to walk out in dignity.