Hope

Much has happened since I last wrote. As with everyone's life - some things were challenging, some were uplifting, and some neutral - all blended into these seconds and times we call "life". 

Here is a glass half empty/half full synopsis of our recent past:

The Glass is Half Empty Version

-Robert's phantom pains returned. 
-Robert's leg shrank to the point that his prosthesis was too big for him to walk some days.
-Our daughter-in-law was hospitalized with HELLP Syndrome.
-Our grandchild was born prematurely, had a collapsed lung, jaundice, and her system was borderline septic.
-I sprained my ankle badly enough to be on crutches during the last week of school.
-Robert had a fall.
-I was stung by a scorpion.
-We are exhausted.

The Glass is Half Full Version

-Robert controls the phantom pains better now with massage, meds, and realizing he may just need his second and better fitting prosthesis for them to disappear again.
-Robert's second prosthesis is a way-cool vacuum one and his insurance company approved it, so the  gaping fit of his old one is just temporarily crippling.
-Our daughter-in-law caught it in time, survived AND had no complications.
-Our granddaughter, although born prematurely, escaped dying from HELLP Syndrome and is already home and gaining weight every day.
-My sprained ankle sat me still long enough to make some major life decisions, taught me to ask for help more, and showed me what Robert felt like riding through H.E.B. in an electric wheelchair, among a thousand other things that only crutches and limitations can teach you.
-Although Robert fell on our hard, tile floor with his residual limb exposed, he landed on his right butt cheek and with the bed breaking part of his fall; some do not fare as well.
-Although it was a bark scorpion, it must have eaten recently because it wasn't that painful; then again, it stung me on the right butt cheek- so maybe that's a help. What is it with our right butt cheeks lately?
-We have sons, parents, family, and friends who support us, and we have HOPE. 

The point?
When we mortals endure trials, we no longer have hope that is frail; we have this hyper-hope that is chiseled by character-building exercises in the gym of life and designed by God to produce "a harvest of righteousness." 

The take-away?
When we suffer trials, which we all have and will, if we remember to surrender to God as we squirm and scream, He will turn our gaze to the central point of this life- and nothing else will matter. They say God's office is at the bottom of the rope AND that He's a last-minute God. That is when He works things for His glory - when we long to despair the most, the potential for hope is the greatest.

"Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my help and my God." Psalm 43:56