Reframing

What are you grumbling about these days? Do you ever hear yourself say something like ‘if only things were like back when …”? Sometimes when we are struggling to find hope, when things aren’t going as we think they should, we can rewrite the past to give us something to look back to instead. In our story from the book of Exodus today, the Israelites are doing this. It’s been a while since God brought them out of slavery and they aren’t yet at the place God promised them. They want the milk and honey God promised them when they cried out in the sorrow of their slavery. Instead God is leading them through the wilderness and as they lose sight of the future hope, they look back and convince themselves that life was glorious in Egypt describing not the impossible working conditions of their slavery but the feast God provided to mark the night of their freedom.

I hear a lot of folks in the US today longing for the ‘good ole days’ as they describe a time where everyone was happy and had what they needed. But is this really true or are we looking backward to a reframed reality because we are fining hope illusive? When we look backwards for hope we are taking our eyes off of Jesus who says ‘follow me’.

Hope is always before us in the God who hears both our cries of sorrow and our grumblings of discontent. Hope is trusting in God’s promises even when we can’t see a way through the wilderness. Hope is looking to God for our strength when we don’t think we can endure the path before us. Hope isn’t toxic positivity or wishful thinking. Hope doesn’t require us to reframe the reality of the past, present, or future. Hope is knowing that God is the creator of all and God’s plan is to reconcile all of creation through loving peace making.

Hope enables us to see that peace making isn’t passive or reluctant acceptance nor the reframing of what has been but a rugged journey through the wilderness knowing the promised land is still in front of us. When you catch yourself grumbling, look for Jesus who leads us into the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. And if you can’t spot Jesus through the crowd, if you need to be reminded that you are God’s beloved or of God’s presence with us always, let me know and we can share a conversation over coffee.

Keep lovin’ louder than the hate, Y’all.