I've encountered people, young and old, families, single ones, trying to move forward, to what represented the hope to a better life. A future better than the present challenges, or at least better than what they left behind.
I've personally met many asylum seeker moving from continent to continent. Step by step.
...Another city, the next country, crossing the see in between... Another step further...
How did they make it? How did they not crumble in front of disappointment after disappointment, after fears coming true and the pain of misfortunes?...
One step at a time.
One step closer to a new reality, in pursuit of a hope.
Hope made them keep moving.
Hope helped them to endure the trials and difficulties, the uncertainties facing them many times on their path.
I don't know whether all of them happened to reach the desired destination. I know of many that are still on the road, longing to finally arrive to a new home... But I do know that asylum seekers are not the only ones experiencing a journey of searching and longing.
I've gotten to the conclusion that life is a journey, and we all—all—travel through it. Life has been, since the beginning of mankind, about a journey.
We travel through our life.
As a matter of fact, we start at birth, and motion takes us until the last breath.
We are foreigners in this world, and for those that have believed in God, and in a victoriously risen savior (Jesus), we carry a hope for a new—better world, helping us to ease our journey, —especially during life's trials.
Trusting God will give us the strength we need to continue our travel through life, to keep moving forward, in the midst of, in spite of,— which I have repetitively experienced in my own journey, as an offspring of foreigners, a foreigner itself in other lands... as a foreigner in this life.
Isaiah 40:31 says something, that took me some time to process, and personally digest:
"But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired."
Here is a promise for the weary traveler: to be provided of all needed strength to continue the journey, when we set our hope in the One who can help us beyond our weaknesses and give us grace to go over the difficulties of the way.
I have found the literature of the Bible to be rich in promises, providing us with undryable wells where we can come and personally draw portions of hope for our thirsty and weary souls... God didn't promise a life free from challenges, but He relentlessly invites us to put our trust and full hope on Him; expressing about Himself to be a solid rock where we can stand and build upon, a solid floor where we can step onto—that won't crumble—, a source of strength for our life journey, because He knows we'll need it and He wanted us to know that it all is accessible, at our disposal...
In Him we can have His very own strengths to be able to continue, to be brave when we pass through scary and unknown places, to not give up or give in but also to pursue a hope, knowing that it is worth it of the journey—an incorruptible home where we belong. In this way, we may confidently hold onto a hope that makes all things possible, a hope that will take us forward, every day, in every situation, one step, and one day at a time.
