Today felt long. For the past 6 months or so I have been seeing clients in therapy. I don't post about this for obvious ethical reasons. However, this morning I was reflecting about what my role as a therapist really is. I wish I could tell you I came up with something brilliant, but alas, I did not. I continued on to face my day to day tasks. I worked, I counseled, I wrote case notes, I did homework, I gave a presentation. I just dawned on me, as I have been reading up on some research for a therapy case of mine, that the way I get through a therapy session is much like the way I get through my own life:

I hope.

I hope with and for my friends and clients. I hope for the suffering people in Haiti whom I've never met. I hope for the church. I hope for the lost. I hope for my family. I hope for my roommates. I hope for my professors and I hope for my students. I hope for my classmates. I hope for the addicts and alcoholics I just met at the AA meeting I sat in on tonight. I hope for the kids I work with in the summer. I hope for myself. I just always hope.

A few years ago, I wasn't sure I know what it meant to hope. I thought that hope was a verb that required a direct object. Typically when the world talks about hope they say things like "I hope that you feel better soon" "I hope that God will bring you peace" "I hope that you will do the right thing" "I hope that everything works out" "I hope that..." I felt as if hope was something people had because they didn't know what else to do, and they were too afraid to admit the alternitive- that someone might not feel better, or that they might not ever get peace, or do the right thing, and that things might not work out alright in the end. But what I know now is that hope doesn't need a direct object. God, in his great love for us, sent his only Son to set us free from the sin that imprisons us and rescue us from the terrible things that sometimes happen in life. When I finally decided to really beleive in that love of the Father, I was flooded with hope. I hope because I know that with God all things are possible. With God people stuck in sin can be set free, tragedy can be overcome, doubt can be quieted, broken relationships can be healed, and broken hearts can be made new again. You see, hope is flexible. It redefines itself to fit the immediate parameters and needs of any situation. Once you choose hope over despair, anything is possible.

I still don't think that I've come up with any brilliant ideas about counseling... But to be honest, I'm not sure that coming up with a brilliant idea is what's really important anyways.

Micah 7:7
But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.