hope Archives – Jeff & Rachael Pitts

In someway, I would like to rant on the political side of this situation.
In others, I would like to formulate my own stance on the virus.
In a third way, mostly I am just fatigued.

I am tired of projections and predictions.
I am tired of distancing.
I am tried of awaiting what may or may not come.

This in no way is to disregard those suffering. My heart hurts for those who are hurting. My prayer is God moves swiftly in your healing, in your provision, in your life. These are the words of fatigue, which in and of itself is a paradox since isolation has also slowed life down where little is getting done.

I am the first to admit that I lack answers to the questions of when, how long, and the one that haunts all of us “why”.

What I do know is that this has made the lonely more lonely. It has made the fight for joy that much harder. It has made the gap in Christian community that much more vast. We can Zoom, we can FaceTime, snap stories and Tik Tok around the clock, but we were made for two purposes: to love God and love others. While we have thousands of methods to deliver content, it is still impossible to deliver a hug. While we can mass stream the message, we still sit at a place where we need one person to sit with us in our mess.

I am not advocating breaking stride with recommendations. I am anxious to see this season end. And end, one day it will. My hope and prayer is that when days of distance end, we do not keep the patterns of our distancing. My hope is that we run into spaces and places with people. My concern is that if even for just a short season this new normal of life over devices keeps us at a distance from one another. That in this space of curated faith we forget the community of that saints.

This is not a discussion of rights and freedoms. This is a discussion of design. God in the garden looked at his creation of man and said “it is not good” for man to be alone. The first note in the biblical narrative of something that was not good. Everything else to that point had been good. In fact, man crafted in the image of God was “very good”, until the point of recognition that he was alone.

More than ever we feel alone and that is not good. More than ever we need each other. More than ever once this passes, we will need to gather. More than ever we will need to join hearts, hands, voices in prayer and praise to our Creator. I am tired, I am fatigued, but I am hopeful. I am hopeful of longing hearts opening homes to one another. Friends, family, and even strangers may break bread around tables together in communion. I am hopeful that those who in the midst of crisis have found or renewed faith will find a community of disciples to build them and equip them. I am hopeful because in the midst of crisis, Christ has been preached around the globe. I am hopeful that saints have slowed down and taken real time with their Savior.

I am hopeful because on this Easter as much as any other, the message of the greatest hope is still very true: Jesus is risen. He is alive forever more and this is very good.

“The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their HOPE in His unfailing love.”
Psalm 147:11

Hope.

That seems all there was to hold onto at the end of 2018, as the calendar flipped to 2019. The previous year had been filled with celebrations of God’s goodness and sucker punches of loss that brought us to our knees. The word surprise can usher in blessings but can also bring with it hurt and heartbreak. In 2018, we were surprised by both.

So as we completed another trip around the sun, our family needed a word to hold on to. As has become a tradition, Rachael and I pick a verse and an accompanying word for that verse. Overwhelmingly, the word we needed was HOPE. As with seemingly every year we pick a verse and word to guide us on our journey, it acts as a nearly prophetic indicator of not what will show up, but more what we will need most in the coming season.

In 2017, we choose the word “intentional”. It was the year we had to make bold, brave, and intentional choices in order to see the promises of God in our life.

In 2018, the word was “dispel”. Rachael and I overwhelming felt as though we needed light to push back the darkness. Darkness was an ever present foe. Yet, the light of the Jesus was fighting for us. His light won some wars we could not fight alone.

After a year of fighting back darkness, we needed the Lord to be a light and hopefully, make our load light. To illuminate our year we chose “hope”. Hopelessness hit as hard and heavyweight boxer with the passing of my mother-in-law suddenly. Moments of despair swept in as we continued to walk through heartbreak and loss.

Author Brene Brown says “hope is a form of struggle.” We forged ahead into the struggle. We celebrated as our oldest graduated high school and our youngest finished elementary school. 2019 brought hope that the two turning 16 would pass their driver’s test. With fingers crossed and season of prayer, the state of Tennessee says they are fit to drive on their own. There were heights of days spent at the beach, day trips to Dollywood, and Thursday night and Friday night football games. All Instagram worthy moments.

Then comes the moments that never get posted. A family walking through loss. Lots of transition of life stages with their own set of challenges. Prayers prayed and petitioned seemingly without answer. Making a tough choice to leave a church that meant so much to us, but knowing that it was a step we needed to take to move closer to the calling God had for Rachael and I.

In light of what seemed like never ending days, the year sped by quickly. God often answers our prayers in very unexpected ways. I remember a February morning pleading with God in ink on the pages of my journal that he would bring me to mind of anyone. I felt like a ship lost at sea in so many ways. The glow of a blue iMessage from my friend Rob showed up two hours later with the words “Bro, we need to talk.” That lunch conversation shifted many things. What we believed to be a book turned into The Collectives Co. Podcast. The intrigue of the Lord is 20 years ago, prior to attending Lee University, I worked at the college radio station at Illinois State. Just proof that nothing gets wasted with God.

My wife, with much passion, asked God to move her from the classroom. Again, how we expect God to work never seems to be how he writes the script. An opportunity came for her to teach online from home. What seemed like a good opportunity, spun into a God opportunity. The Lord often works like Congress, he will piggy back something unexpected onto something completely different. In the midst of the application process to the online school, my father-in-law had a relatively normal medical procedure, but he needed a driver. So we chauffeured him to the appointment and went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. A chance encounter with a friend of a friend led to that pork possibility on the online teaching position. God gives double to the faithful. So not only did Rachael move out of the classroom, but we have been blessed for her to have the opportunity to be part-time faculty at Lee University observing TESOL student teachers.

I know, I know. This is far beyond the cute, quick 500 words I normally post, but I wanted to document all this maybe not so much for you, but also for me. Hope is often hard to see in the day to day. Hope can be hard to find the minutia of parenting and pastoring. Yet, we found hope.

I cannot tell you all the things the Lord has done and is doing. Some of those things are yet to fully be birthed, but I know this much, the Lord has given us HOPE.

Tag: hope

Quarantine – It is not good.

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