hope in a jar.

I try to take good care of my skin. The line of skincare that I am using right now is called philosophy. I first tried their kiss me lip balm back in 1997, because I thought their packaging was cool and I liked the name of it. Now, years later, I still like their stuff and I still think the packaging is cool.

One of the cool things about the packaging is that each product has this neat name with a little blurb underneath that relates to the name of the product. Now, there are many products in the philosophy line that I love, but my favorite is my face cream. It feels great. It's got a bunch of good stuff in it. And the neat name? Hope in a jar. Isn't that cute?

It gets better. The little blurb on the jar says:

"Where there is hope, there can be faith. Where there is faith, miracles can occur."

Now, I realize that it's supposed to be a blurb that purports the miracle-working properties of the cream for one's skin (and I apologize NOW for using the word 'NOW' so much in this post...I must be tired) but it can really be the blurb for my life. Or the life of any believer for that matter. I don't know if the founder of the company is a believer or not, but she hit the nail right on the head. And how apropos that she fits such a power-packed statement on a little jar.

How much hope does one need really? If one can do fairly well (to say the least) with faith the size of a mustard seed, then a jar-full of hope would do more than enough to see one through a life of miracles, wouldn't it?

Sorry to lead you down a rabbit trail. And no, I'm not randomly musing. I really do have a point to all of this.

I was asked to lead the worship for the spanish church service that we have on Sunday afternoons. I've done it before, so it was no big deal.

What was a big deal was being asked to do the teaching for the service. Hmm. It's been years since I've done any teaching like this, and never in Spanish. And it was short notice. So I was like, what should I say?

"I know," I thought. I'll tell them about hope and encourage them to never lose it. I'll tell them that as new Christians (which they all are) the enemy will go after them with guns blazing to try to get them to feel hope-less. He'll throw all sorts of impossible circumstances their way, to get them to feel there is no hope. Because without hope, there can be no faith, and without faith, it's pretty hard to see any miracles. (Hebrews 11:1)

So, that's pretty much what I told them.

I told them about a church full of hope, wanting to see the Kingdom of Heaven manifested here on earth in people's lives, versus a church full of religion, devoid of hope, faith, or power. The latter may look good on the outside and even seem right, but in the end it leads to death. It leads to the death of destiny and purpose.

I spoke to them about their destiny and purpose, and prayed for each one of them. It was cool.

That was after a Friday afternoon that was spent carrying some hope to a couple of girls in a predominantly Spanish neighborhood and leading them to the Lord. That was cool.

THAT was after spending about an hour on the phone with my cousin the day before, pouring hope into her, encouraging her to hold onto it and keep her eyes on the Lord and not on circumstances, as she was worrying about how she would pay her rent which was due on May 5 (her husband just left her). I knew it might be a hard sell, but since she already knows the Lord, I believed that if I could just get her thinking about Jesus and all the GOOD he has for her (Jeremiah 29:11) and get her mind off of what has just transpired in her life, she would begin to see some miracles herself. And she did.

I told her her rent would be paid, and it was. Her boss ended up paying it for her, and told her she was family! How many bosses do THAT? That was cool.

That was hope. And my skin looks pretty good with no makeup. That's cool.

nostalgia tuesday.

Today it's the year 1975. Here are the hits.

• "One of These Nights," The Eagles
• "Jive Talkin'," Bee Gees
• "Black Water," Doobie Brothers
  

must...go...to...sleep.

Oh my gosh! I am SO glad Heroes is back on. And it was SO good last night!

...Well...two nights ago. I guess.

Grrrr Sylar! I hate that guy!

HOW will it all END??

nostalgia tuesday.

I know it was only a few years ago (okay, three), but what the heck? It was still in the past, if not exactly vintage. So here you are. Songs from yesteryear, or more like almost yesterday: 2004.

• "This Love," Maroon 5
• "Yeah," Usher
• "Meant to Live," Switchfoot