Month: January 2020

Daddy Issues

Kendra Pope2 Comments

A Picture of a Faithful Father

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.  He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.

Psalm 107:19-20

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me… to bind up the broken hearted. Isaiah 61:1

“I want you to say that again,” my counselor said slowly and directly.

“He wasn’t there because he doesn’t love me,” I repeated. (Referring to my earthly dad) It was painful to say the first time. The second time, I couldn’t hold back the tears. I tried. Regardless if the statement was true, it was how his absence made me feel.

I thought to myself, “I just don’t have the emotional energy to process this along with everything else right now.”

I had long known I had what I lovingly refer to as “daddy issues.” It was time to face some of them. Although I will never fully understand how deeply growing up without my earthly father has affected me, God has given me some clarity on much of this festering wound. It’s another space of brokenness in my life that His grace is sufficient to restore.

My heart has broken multiple times and for several different reasons. Some out of my control. Many times, from choices I made. All a result of this groaning world we live in. (Romans 8:22) I’m sure you can relate, friend.

Nobody gets out of this life without heartbreak. Even those of us with fathers in our homes carry daddy wounds. There is no earthly father that is able to love perfectly. Thank God for His graciousness in filling up our holes to make us whole.

Christ came for the broken hearted.

He came for me. He came for you.

To do what? To bind up. To heal. To save.

Not so that we could push our sadness down and away, and some how (although we never really do) leave it behind, but so we could experience the emptiness here and now and allow Him to come in and fill it with Himself.

Healing doesn’t mean moving on, but it does mean stepping forward. Healing means living in freedom with our broken hearts mended. We may walk with a limp, but we walk in freedom. He indeed binds up and as He binds, we are changed, forever. For the better.

He is well acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:3) Fall into the arms of a Savior who understands brokenness completely, (Hebrews 4:15) and broke Himself because of it.

Sadness will come again. It will come and don’t let anyone tell you not to let it, especially yourself. Don’t tuck it away to protect anyone. Don’t push it down because you don’t have the time. Find your safe places to process it.

In the meantime, remember that you have a heavenly father who has and is doing more than any earthly father ever could. Click here to read Psalm 107. I love the picture it gives of our faithful heavenly Father. He rescues. (6) He leads. (7) He faithfully loves. (8) He provides. (9) He disciplines. (12) He saves. (13b-14) He fights. (14b) He heals.(20) He orchestrates. (25) He guides. (30b) He defends. (40-41)

This is your Father. (Psalm 68:5)

The wounds of this life are fierce and our God is ferocious. He will stop at nothing in pursuit of our broken hearts.

Jesus would later pull out the scroll of Isaiah in the temple and declare that He was the fulfillment of this prophecy. (Luke 4:18-19)

He is the “everlasting father” we long for. (Isaiah 9:6) He is able to parent perfectly.

When hope is real…
I am loved by a faithful father.

Cheering you on,


#neverwithouthope #whenhopeisreal #faithfulfather

I Am Hope

Kendra Pope4 Comments

A Poem

I am heavy. I am confused. I am angry. I am weak.

It’s too much to carry. In fact, I know I cannot.

I try to fight. I try to see. I try to breath.

Get this off of me. Take it away.

Take me away.

I don’t want to talk about what is normal. I don’t want to hear about what is new and normal. I don’t want to smell his pillow in his empty room. I don’t want to see his clothes packed in a box.

I am not hungry. I am not happy. I am not whole.

I can’t feel. I can’t sing. I can’t laugh.

I want his voice. I want his laughter. I want his touch. I want his smile.

I am grief, fresh from the womb of love.

You are light. You are ordered. You are peace. You are strong.

You carry me.

You have won. You see all things. You give breath.

Nothing is impossible for you. You took it.

Hold me now.

You are supernatural. You never change. You fill empty space. You provide all we need.

You fill me. You are happiness. You are whole.

You carry me. You rejoice over me. You are my joy.

You do not leave me wanting.

I am hope, fresh from the womb of love.

#whenhopeisreal #neverwithouthope #iamhope

Hope Anchors

Kendra Pope

Can I have your permission to throw it back even though it’s not Thursday? I didn’t think you’d mind. “Hope Floats” was a popular movie starring Sandra Bullock that was out when I was young (er).:-) In it, a woman finds herself struggling to recover after a devastating and embarrassing divorce.

She reflects on her life a lot when she heads to mamas house to find herself again. Hard times and unpredictable circumstances can cause us to lose ourselves a bit, can’t they? They certainly cause us to wish we didn’t have to live through them.

Reflection is a normal part of our search.

How did I get here? Did I take a wrong turn? Why me? Why Him? How could this happen? You get the search.

Sometimes we find answers and sometimes we don’t. We would be completely destitute if our hope was in answers.

In painful circumstances we have a unique opportunity to trust God more deeply. Unique because we see Him showing Himself in unique ways to those suffering throughout the scriptures. Our enemy would have us stay “beefed” with our Savior because of the “unfairness” of it all. He would love us to turn away and run, as if God will not meet us wherever we run. Our Savior calls us to trust.

He longs for our trust. He longs for our single mindedness. Our single heartedness. (Matthew 22:37) He never promised understanding, He promised grace (2 Corinthians 12:9) and wisdom (James 1:5)

Many times, we have to trust God with the answers we may never get. When I stop chasing understanding, there is space for transformation. Believing, not understanding is our Father’s heart for us. Who can understand the super natural? When I believe Him, I’m able to breath again.

I’m able to get up again.

I’m able to take one step forward again.

Believing what God says in the darkest hour marks a life of REAL HOPE. True hope is found in in Him ALONE.

I know deeply that all of this does not always feel true.

In fact, when I watch my son’s seizures begin while I am praying over him for healing or suffer through an uncontrolled coughing spell on an almost daily basis, I want to quit. Nothing on this side of heaven infuriates this mama more. My faith has never been so challenged as it is in my pain; in my son’s pain. Can you relate?

Fighting-and it is truly a feud for the centuries-to believe the truth when our circumstances seem to contradict it is a wrestling match well worth having. In these battles, truth always wins and anchors our hope.

Here are a couple of helpful definitions for us as we wade through all this “hope” talk.

First, faith. Faith is resting confidence in a promise. Kind of like sitting and resting completely on the object you are now. (your chair, couch, etc) Your full weight is in it. You believe it will hold you up. That’s why you sat in it. Although you have not yet seen the complete promise fulfilled, (you haven’t gotten up from the place of rest yet, so you won’t know until you do) you are resting in it.

Hope is confident expectation of the fulfillment of a promise.

Faith believes the promise.

Hope confidently expects the fulfillment of the promise.

Our hope is only as good as the promise to which it is tied.

What is the promise to which our hope is tied?

The promise of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ (and TONS of other amazing promises God lays out for His children in His word-the Bible). (John 3:16)

From the mouth of God, we have a promise (eh-hem, many promises) that we can confidently expect.

No. Matter. What. Sucker. Punches. Knock. The. Breath. Out. Of. Us. (see how I tried to get you to slow down there…:-))

Hope breaths. Hope moves. Hope lives. Hope anchors.

Not based on some ever changing, unpredictable circumstance, but Based on the promise of God.

Our hope does not float. THANK GOD. There is a lot more in store for us at the end of our movie than a slow dance with a cowboy!

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Hebrews 6:19

When hope is REAL…

I live a life full of it.

Cheering you on,

#whenhopeisreal #neverwithouthope

Reflect with me for a few minutes. Are there things in this life, other than Jesus that I have put my hope in? Good things? Bad things? Is my hope in my comfortable circumstances? (great journal writing to do here or you can share in the comments if you’re brave! ;-))

Don’t Move

The best words to begin 2020!

Kendra Pope

“Stand still. Don’t. Move.”

It’s something I’ve said to my children over the years in several different situations. Whether it be swatting a stinging bug off of their head or keeping them from carelessly jumping into a busy street.

When I say it, I mean it and it’s for their protection.

In John 15:9, we read Jesus saying these words to His kids. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

Remain in my love.

Jesus is being blatantly clear on where we should abide as His children.

Don’t. Move.

Why? Because as he says a few verses before, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Obviously, we can still do things, but Jesus, as He always is speaks here of things of eternal value.

We read the results of remaining a bit further down in the text.

>>> We will have joy. (John 15:11)

>>> We will love others as He loves us. (John 15:12)

>>>We will have a friendship with the one true King. (John 15:14)

>>>We will bear fruit that will last. (John 15:16)

Confession: Sometimes I feel like God doesn’t love me because of my circumstances. Pain, loss, and disappointment can all tempt us to RUN from His love, not REMAIN in it. In fact, those very words have come out of my mouth from deep places of pain in my heart.

Who wants to remain in a love that can hurt so deeply? A love that doesn’t guarantee circumstances that I’m uncomfortable with?

A love that sent this same Jesus to a bloody cross…

...and a glorious resurrection.

I’ll tell you who. Someone who knows the lover.

As we get to know His intentions and believe He is who He says He is in His word, we will begin to shutter at the thought of NOT remaining in His love. We know it is our only TRUE place of safety and rest. Every other place we try to create only leaves us epically disappointed.

We aren’t good at remaining, being still and abiding in one place for a long period of time. So, what might it look like to remain in Jesus’ love? As His children, it’s important that we know.

There are a few things I’m intentional about practicing to “remain in His love.”

I force myself to be completely honest with Him about what is going on and how I’m feeling. I stop hiding from Him. He already knows anyway.

I make time to read His word. It’s there if I look for it. I stop avoiding His presence.

Then I believe what He says in it. I stop rejecting truth.

The choice is clear for me today. Will I be a “runner” or a “remainer?” (totally made that word up just for you… you’re welcome ;-))

Let today, the first day of 2020, be the day you’re a child who trusts their parent’s command…

Remain in His love. It’s for our best. There are no better words to begin 2020 with.

Cheering you on Always,

Kendra

#whenhopeisreal #neverwithouthope