This pandemic has taken so many prisoners, and my heart is heavy for everyone who finds themselves languishing behind bars right now.
The elderly person who can’t have visitors.
The single parent who is never off the clock.
The person battling anxiety.
The person with a compromised immune system.
The person stuck at home in an abusive relationship.
The person who lives alone and feels the ache of loneliness.
Perhaps this virus isn’t responsible for our chains, but it certainly has exposed them. The truth is, we are all prisoners of something—we don’t have much choice about that. But we do have some say in what we will be enslaved to.
I came across this verse recently, and it struck me in a new way in this season of fear and quarantine:
Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
Zechariah 9:12
even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
Prisoners of hope. What would it look like, I wonder, to be a prisoner of hope rather than a prisoner of fear?
I want to be chained to hope.
I want to shackle myself to it and not let go.
I want it to follow me wherever I go.
The fact that hope takes prisoners implies a battle. There’s nothing passive about it. It requires courage. It’s a fight.
Faith, as I imagine it, is tensile, and cool, and has no need of words. Hope, I know, is a fighter and a screamer.
Mary Oliver
Hope means choosing love, over and over again . . . and asking for forgiveness when we fail.
It means doing the next right thing.
It means getting up again.
It means believing there will be manna enough for today.
It means laying down our weapons, and sometimes our screens.
It means writing a note, making a phone call, baking a batch of cookies, playing another round of Scrabble.
It means listening for the birds and watching for the green daffodil shoots peeking out of the ground.
It means we keep living, one moment at a time. The battle has already been won.
Hope and despair stand always side by side, each determined to outlast the other. If we choose hope, we must join the standoff, with hearts and hands wide open, fighting the urge to fade into despair.
Catherine McNiel
Beautiful and so appropriate for right now. Thank you, Stephanie! I am delighting in being trapped in our 2 bedroom apartment with 3 rowdy sons, although I am pulling my hair out a bit trying to learn the online learning system that our poor teachers had to come up with on the fly! We are surrounded by forest here. So, when things get tight, I kick the whole family outside and we walk simple dirt roads and listen to the rustle of the wind through the trees. I have friends who are not as lucky right now and your words are such an encouragement!
So glad you guys are enjoying God’s world! Godspeed on the elearning…
I’m new to your “followers”, Stephanie. Your refreshing thoughtful and creative writing leaves me challenged and stimulated to…to hang on to Hope.
Thanks for the kind words, Jan! And welcome!
Prisoners of Hope is a powerful image from a writer so gifted in painting with words. Thank you Stephanie!
Thank you so much, Maggie!
Hmmm, “prisoner”, interesting to know that maybe a lot of people would feel they are behind bars when they should stay at home because of this covid19.
I have been caring my Mum, 91yo, for more than two years, she could become panick if she is alone at home, I cannot leave her alone except a respite staff come to stay with her if I need to take a break. So I have been isolated myself for more than two years, and reading this article, Stephanie, has made me pondering why it has never been come across in my mind that I am a “prisoner”? And I thank our gracious God for that. I think it because this sentence “This is something that pleases God.” in Timothy 5:4 NLT has helped me greatly day by day in this season of my life. “But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases God.”
Yes, that has given me HOPE and PEACE in my heart that stay at home caring my Mum is something that PLEASES God.
“Prisoner of HOPE” that’s really beautiful and helpful to have HOPE every day. Thank you, Stephanie.
Bless you for honoring your mom in this way! There is freedom in obedience.
Hope, such a loaded word in today’s vernacular. But hope in the Bible is clear. An expectation not a wish. A promise not a guess. Thanks for the reminder that we need to battle, or really to let God battle for us, for the hope of His salvation from this current situation and ultimately from this earth. We know that we have the manna we need for today and that He will take care of tomorrow. Have a blessed Easter week with your family.
What a good word…a promise not a guess. Amen!
Thank you once again, Stephanie, for sharing truth that draws me closer to Jesus and into the full life He offers to us. I love thinking about hope as active, feisty, and requiring courage. I think I have that kind of hope, but I didn’t know it until I read this. You are so very, very good at words my friend!
You do have a feisty faith, Susie! I love that about you.
BEAUTIFUL thoughts cousin Stephanie ; that God brought together to your mind and heart; to be elequently put into this writing ✍️—a Gift God have you !! Hugs and Love ❤️ as we fight this with “Hope of what God is doing and Will continue to do “ from this time !
You are such an encourager, Sarah! So grateful for you.