Red Cup Season

The red cups at Starbucks mark the beginning of the holiday season in my mind. Today, I stopped on the way home from running errands at the local drive through Starbucks. I was delighted to find advertisement on the menu for the traditional holiday flair. I gave into the marketing and ordered a holiday drink. After completing the sale, I was greeted with my venti non-fat, no whip peppermint mocha in a bright red cup!

It amazes me how big a difference the color of my coffee cup makes in my attitude for the rest of the day. I love red cup season, I really do. Perhaps it's because I love the Christmas holiday season and all that it means. I love the emphasis on faith, on family and friends. Even though it is typically colder, and grayer physically, everything seems to be right with the world. It reminds me that even though the world and my life often seem crazy and hectic, there truly is a peace that reigns true through it all.

It's really easy for me to forget that peace in life, and even in the midst of the Christmas season. For that reason, here are some things I am thankful and/or hopeful about. I hope this will remind me and you when life gets hectic that joy and peace can be found within it all.

* Faith and redemption
* My rockstar RA staff
* Being within 180 days of graduating
* Being able to get my Masters degree
* Having more clarity about the possibility of a Ph.D in the future
* Finally being halfway good at scrabble
* Using technology to keep in touch with my friends far away
* Rekindling friendships with people who mean a lot to me
* The simplistic yet profound music of Dave Barnes, Matt Wertz, Andy Davis, Steven Clawson and Rob Blackledge
* Having a job that I enjoy
* The promise that I will always have a job that I enjoy
* Amazing friends! (Even when they all live outside of CS and sometimes the US)
* Time to read my favorite authors (Donald Miller and Elisabeth Elliot)
* Calling and passion
* Great family
* Dallas, the Reunion Tower, and the conversations had therein
* Enjoying a professional conference and feeling as though I actually fit there
* Encouragement
* Mentoring students and young women
* Loving and being loved
* Promise of a future and hope (Jer. 29:11)
* Learning to trust in hope (Romans 5:3-5)
* Small details and dreams falling into place (aka- a DOG!)
* My brother's health making changes in family relationships
* That my brother is ok
* Friends weddings
* Excitement, anticipation about this season and what God is going to do in the next few months!

This is a growing, evolving list that will always be missing something. I pray I would be made more aware of what I should be thankful for.

Hope

I recently purchased a decorative plaque to hang on the wall that has a version Romans 5:3-5 on it. The theme is Hope. The plaque says:

Rejoice in our suffering,
Because suffering produces perseverance
Perseverance-Character
Character-HOPE

After hanging it on the wall, I realized it is an incomplete thought- it is missing "and hope does not disappointed us." While being surprised that I remembered the rest of the passage, I was struck by how often I leave that tag line off as well.

I think I get so caught up in the idea of God's will versus my own that I forget I'm expected to be hopeful. What I mean by that is I am so sure that what I want and am hopeful for is probably not what's in God's will for me that I am afraid to ask.

The rest of the verse says "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Romans 3:5). This tells me that if my heart is hoping for something, and I am truly seeking God with my life, it is put there by His love and the Holy Spirit. Wow.

I am so often fearful of the disappointment, that I often forget or even refuse to hope. More often than not, I talk myself out of hope. What a sad state of life! It is not at all what I am called to! By stifling hope, which is built out of prayer and walking with the Lord, I am causing my own disappointment, but more importantly stifling the work of the Spirit! My false humility may actually be hindering God's glory in myself or others.

Currently, there are a couple of "situations" (I use that word only because I can't think of anything else to classify them as) where I have rejected hope. Last night, I truly prayed out of the heart asking the Lord for the things my heart was secretly hoping for inside. I have not felt that peace and confidence in what I hope for in a long time. I don't know if God will answer them as I would like (I am learning to hope that He will), but perhaps they are there so I learn to be hopeful.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings becuase we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 5:3-5