Hope and a Yo Yo

I wonder how Hope is like a Yo Yo?

About 20 years ago I was invited by our local priest to participate in some theology workshops where we began a light study of the scriptures. As we began our learning and brief inquiring into the various books starting with Genesis I noticed a pattern developing. First the people would be happy and worshiping God then as time went on and they began to prosper they forgot about God. In their focus on acquiring material wealth they had forgotten about the One who had ultimately provided it. God would send a reluctant prophet who would plead to the people to return to God. The people did not listen and the result was they lost their material wealth and freedoms to another people or natural disaster. This cycle seems to be prevalent throughout the Bible and made total sense to me in that I immediately connected it to my own life and the Yo Yo.

I like many people experience ups and downs; times of deep reflection and awe of natural law then times of extreme busyness and reactive stress relief. I have been working on mastering the Yo Yo of life for quite some time now and have even had to rewind my string a few times. One important thing that keeps me practicing is the understanding that no matter what, there is a string that keeps me connected to my Hopes. Some deep intrinsic motivation to find my Yo Yo at the end of the string, wind it up and practice some more. What is really cool is that I am learning more about what keeps the Yo Yo in motion. It is not the extrinsic movement of a busy life but an intrinsic movement of a still life.



"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."



I wonder if "every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" are Words of Hope?



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