Will and Hope

[Originally posted Wednesday, April 11, 2007]

When my younger brother was about seven years old, he contracted pneumonia and typhoid fever.... All of us, except my mother, left the hospital not expecting to see him again. But my mother spent the night by his bedside, reaching out and touching his face or stroking his head. As the night wore on, out of sheer exhuastion she fell asleep in her chair. Night after night she had stayed awake, yet on this night, his last night, she had run out of strength. Her head drooped and she fell asleep for a couple of hours--the very hours she was told he would die.

She awakened with a start find him still alive. In fact, she felt a warmth in his body she had not felt before. As one day passed into another he became stronger until he had fully recovered.

My mother told us often that she felt that when she had given all she had to give and could give no more, God had taken over and given her the sleep she so needed as He restored the ailing frame of her son. This, to me, is a remarkable expression of will and hope....

When your will is committed to God, He carries you when all else seems spent, to rescue what you had invested by your dedication. (Ravi Zacharias)

I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

(Psalm 27:13-14)