Hope Sings: Risk More. Dream Bigger. Fear Less. - Softcover

Susanna Foth Aughtmon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501820133 ISBN 13: 9781501820137

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2017

Synopsis

Following God on our journey of faith can be a journey in the dark. Oftentimes, we don't know where we are going or where we will end up. Sometimes we feel completely lost. We get caught up in fear or anxiety. But Faith has a best friend named Hope. Hope shows up when we get to know the effervescent character of the One who loves us most of all.

In Aughtmon's new book, Hope Sings, the reader is invited to follow God on a faith journey. God wants us to reach for dreams that are out of our grasp. To fight for impossible causes. To believe for the miraculous. To hold on to Him when all else seems lost.

God wants us to put our hope in Him. In His character. In His mercy. His peace. His grace. His worthiness. His faithfulness. His ability to restore. His healing power. His authentic goodness. Our hope is in the One who calms seas and breathes life back into the dead. His voice is singing out, bringing light into the dark, inviting us to join Him in His everlasting song of hope.

About this title

About the Author

Susanna Foth Aughtmon is the author of All I Need Is Jesus & a Good Pair of Jeans, My Bangs Look Good & Other Lies I Tell Myself, I Blame Eve; contributor to Mornings with Jesus; co-author of Chasing God, Need You Now, A Trip Around the Sun, and One Dress. One Year. She is married to Scott and mother to three amazing children. Learn more about Susanna at tiredsupergirl.blogspot.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Hope Sings

Risk More Dream Bigger Fear Less

By Susanna Foth Aughtmon

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2017 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5018-2013-7

Contents

Introduction, 
1. Sitting in the Dark, 
2. Faith and Fear, 
3. Being Brave, 
4. The Big Questions, 
5. The Who Question, 
6. The Song of Hope, 
7. The Hope Sing-Along, 
8. The Jail Breaker, 
9. The Redeemer, 
10. The Storm Whisperer, 
11. The Time Keeper, 
12. The Story Writer, 
13. The Good Shepherd, 
14. The Warrior King, 
15. The Faithful Friend, 
16. The Hope of Heaven, 
17. Risk More. Dream Bigger. Fear Less., 
Conclusion: Sing It Right Out, 
Acknowledgments, 
Notes, 
Bibliography, 

CHAPTER 1

Sitting in the Dark

But faith is not necessarily, or not soon, a resting place. Faith puts you out on a wide river in a boat, in the fog, in the dark.

Wendell Berry

Sitting in the Dark

When I was a child, life was good and simple. I was born in Urbana, near the University of Illinois, to pastor parents. Living in a university town had its perks. Its diverse ethnic culture was married with rural values. College football reigned supreme (Go, Illini, Go!), and the circus stopped by each spring. It was pretty much an idyllic setting. We Foth kids were surrounded by love and good friends and sweet corn. If we were lucky, we got to share the chocolate bars Mom stashed in her purse, and Dad would wrestle with us when he got home from the church at night.

We played hard every day, mostly outside. There wasn't much to be afraid of. Even when the bully down the street tried to take our bikes, we knew Dad would get them back. Our days fell into a rhythm of church on Sundays and school on weekdays. My siblings and I attended Yankee Ridge Elementary about three blocks from our house. We walked there every day and came home to a hot lunch served by Mom. Our teachers were kind, and our classmates were the kids that lived down the street from us. It was just the way life was.

We loved Yankee Ridge. I especially loved my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Miles, with the wavy blonde hair and shiny shoes. I tried very hard to learn my numbers and listen in class. Those who did were rewarded with one of her kind smiles. As Yankee Ridge students, we got to participate in special activities, like macramé and gymnastics. Every so often, different graduate students from the U of I would come to our elementary school and conduct studies for their doctoral programs. They used us as guinea pigs to prove or disprove their theses. We didn't mind because it got us out of class. One day when I was in kindergarten, I was sent home with a note pinned to my shirt. Teachers didn't do e-mail or texts in the olden days. They safety-pinned important messages to our turtlenecks. I was invited to be a part of a study researching if children were afraid of the dark.

My dad was sitting at the dining room table when he read the note. He asked me, "Are you afraid of the dark?" And I said, "No." Because I was out of preschool, for goodness sake. Of course I wasn't afraid of the dark. I was pretty fearless in my younger years. I knew nothing of the horrors of junior high that awaited me. My dad said, "Do you want to be in the study group to see if you are afraid of the dark?" "Sure." Only babies were scared of the dark. My dad signed the note, I took it back to my teacher, and I was in.

The next day, I was ushered into a small room with a child-sized table and chairs. There were no windows in the room. I was seated at the table, and the grad student told me, "I am going to turn out the light and go outside of the room and shut the door. I want you to see how long you can sit in the dark by yourself." He pointed to the light switch on the wall. "If you get scared, you can turn on the light any time you want. But why don't you try to see how long you can sit in the dark without turning on the light?" I said, "OK." He proceeded to flip off the light and walk out the door, shutting it behind him. It was pitch black. I could no longer see the white-and-gray-flecked linoleum beneath my feet. I took a deep breath, and I sat in the dark. By myself. For all of three seconds. And then I got up and turned the light back on.

The grad student must have been able to tell that the light was back on because he immediately opened the door and came back in the room. He had a perplexed look on his face. "You turned on the light." I nodded. "I thought you said that you weren't afraid of the dark." "I'm not," I answered, confidently. "Then why did you turn the light back on?" Now I was the one looking perplexed. I looked at him and said, "Because I wanted to." Apparently, this guy wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. He should have known. Given the choice, no one likes to sit in the dark. Especially by themselves. It doesn't take a research paper to figure that out.

Faith in the Dark

You may be wondering what sitting in the dark has to do with hope. All of our greatest hopes spring from our deep well of faith, a belief that the God of the Universe loves us and has a good plan for us. Without faith in a loving and caring God, there is no hope. The problem is that having faith can feel a whole lot like being a kindergartener sitting in the dark. Trusting God with our lives does not come easily. It is hard. And it goes against human nature to do hard things. The dark isn't really our thing. We are lights-on kind of people.

* * *

Faith: Belief. Confidence. Conviction.

* * *

But the God of the Universe, the One who created us from dust and breathed life into every living creature, is inviting us on a lights-out adventure. An adventure in the dark that He has designed specifically with us in mind. He is asking us to jump feet first into a story we don't know the ending to. It says in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (NIV).

So if we are seeing it, we can be pretty sure that faith is not involved. The Apostle Paul follows up these thoughts in Hebrews 11:6, reminding us, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (NIV).

We desperately want to live a life that is pleasing to Him. We were created for a life of pleasing Him. The internal shift is that most of us came to faith out a life of pleasing ourselves. Before we know Jesus, our bodies, minds, souls, and spirits are completely focused on our own selfish desires. We called all the shots. We didn't care about God or His plans. We only cared about ourselves and our plans. What we didn't know is that the self-pleasing life we were living was leading us down a self-destructive path toward death. Self-centered living always has the same outcome. Before Jesus, we destroyed ourselves with our coveting and hatred and lust. Before Jesus, we drowned ourselves in anger and bitterness. Before Jesus, we were lost in a different kind of darkness — the kind that left us paralyzed in fear and alone with our pain. We were dying moment by moment. We needed saving from the dark. From ourselves.

And that is why Jesus intervened on our behalf. He died so that we could be free from ourselves. He shattered the gates of hell with His powerful love. He showed up with His all-encompassing forgiveness and a new way of living. He brought His healing touch and His truth to our broken spirits. And then He said, "Follow me"(Matthew 4:19 NIV). Follow Me. It is the invitation to faith. It is the clarion call of hope. Follow Me. Leaving the old selfish life behind. Follow Me. Running toward the freeing grace of the One who created us to walk with Him. It is an easy choice if you really think about it. Heads thrown back, arms open wide, we spend our life chasing after Him with all that we are worth, yielding every inch of ourselves to Jesus. We are His — heart, mind, soul, and spirit. We shout at the top of our lungs, "You are in charge. Wherever You are going, that's where I am going! You call the shots from here on out." With faith, we choose the life of yielding everything. At least, we try really hard to choose it. But sometimes those old, selfish thoughts creep in. The ones that make us want to flip on the lights, take control, and forge our own destiny without giving Him and His plans a second thought. It is a daily — or hourly — struggle for some of us walking out our faith.

* * *

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.

Deuteronomy 30:19 NIV

* * *

Amy's Story

Amy lay in bed, her gray hair flattened against the pillow. Her eyes closed, she prayed. Her body was aching and tired even though she had just woken up. But it was a new day. The heat of the rising Tamil Nadu sun pierced through the window. A tiny breeze tugged at the gauzy curtain. The children of the Starry Cluster, those little ones that she and her coworkers had taken in at the Dohnavur Fellowship, would be eating breakfast soon. Their sounds of play would fill the garden. These are the children that had been rescued from temple prostitution, poverty, and a life of slavery. When she arrived in India, she had been an evangelist, sharing the good news. She hadn't known this house, this fellowship, would be her life's work. A mother to the motherless. A teacher. A writer. A songstress.

All she knew when she had left her home in Belfast, Ireland, so long ago was that she wanted to follow Jesus. She wanted to share the love that He had for her with those who were less fortunate than herself. She thought her calling was to Japan. And it had been for a short time. But here she was fifty years later in the land of the mountain tea plantations and steamy jungles. She had never returned home. She spent herself — her heart, soul, mind, and body — in this chosen place. Her hands were gnarled with arthritis, but her heart still beat for the work He had prepared in advance for her to do.

Amy Carmichael sat up in bed, pulling paper and pen from the stand near her bed. She met the day head on. For the past twenty years, she had been an invalid, but there was still work to do. Prayers to be prayed. People to be encouraged. And letters to be written. Picking up where she left off, the nib of the pen scratched against the starchy white paper.

Some of you who are longing to live this life still hesitate. There is no life in all the world so joyful. It has pain in it too but looking back, I can tell you truly that there is far more joy than pain. Do not hesitate. Give yourselves wholly to Your Lord to be prepared for whatever work he has chosen for you to do later.

As far as Amy was concerned, faith in the One who loved her most of all was the only way. Trusting in the dark. Even when it didn't turn out the way she thought it would. Even when she didn't know what was coming next. Even when old bones ached and writing was a painful chore. Somehow, in His presence. The joy just kept on coming.

* * *

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God.

Isaiah 50:10 NIV

* * *

Choosing Faith

Jesus wants us to choose life over death. Growth over destruction. Adventure over fear. He wants us to choose life with Him calling the shots. Even in the dark. Even when it seems crazy. No matter what that looks or feels like. In reality, the path that He has for us may not be all that common or sensible. Sometimes He has wild ideas about going into all the world and preaching the gospel. Or being kind to our enemies. Or giving away all our possessions to feed the poor. When we feel Jesus tugging on our heart to go a certain way that doesn't fall in line with common sense (how do you pay your bills when you have given all your cash to the widows and orphans?), we worry. How can this be right?

It is right because we are leaping into a Spirit-led adventure where His righteousness covers all the bases. His plan has us being solely reliant on Him. He shapes the path of our life according to His perfect will. It is not just our good choices or our common sense that chart the best course for us. It is our belief in the sovereignty of a Holy God and His spectacular plan for our existence that finally gets us moving on the journey we were created for. It is in that moment of committing to a dark river ride in the fog that we actually embrace faith. It is in that place of trust that we launch ourselves, hearts pounding, toward hope.

When we follow the One who loves us most of all into the unknown, into that unseen place where we have to lean on Him and His love and His direction for everything that we need, our adventure begins. Throughout history, He has called his children to follow Him on a lights-out adventure. He called Abraham into the wilderness. He sent Joseph to Egypt. He asked Rahab to leave all that she knew. Our adventure begins with Him calling us to follow Him away from the comfortable life that we know. Because we can't become who we are destined to be, if we are depending on ourselves. Faith requires our total dependence on Him. Every moment of every hour of every day.

* * *

We are here to live holy, loving, lowly lives. We cannot do this unless we are walking very, very close to our Lord Jesus.

Amy Carmichael

* * *

The Real Question

The real question is: Are we ready to risk everything that we know for the life we were made for? Are we ready to follow Jesus even when we have no idea where He is going to take us next? I think the answer is yes. Yes. We are up for it. We may not be Abraham or Joseph or Rahab or Amy Carmichael. We may not establish an entire people group or rule a nation or be a great-great-grandma to a king. We may not be listed with the greats in the faith chapter in Hebrews. We may not be a missionary with a heart for India. But we all long to be the person we were created to be.

We know in our gut that we want in on whatever God has for us. Whatever that life is, wherever it takes us, whoever we become in the process, we want in on faith. The moment we decided to follow Jesus, this desire for deeper faith was birthed in us. And with each small decision to follow, to listen, and to obey the One who loves us most of all, our faith begins to grow.

* * *

When you get to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.

Edward Teller

* * *

Faith is what we are made for. So what if we can't see? So what if we have no idea what is coming next? This place of faith and believing in the God of the Universe? This is when we get to see miracles and hear answered prayers and live out stories that we are going to get to tell our children and our children's children. We may not be able to see where we are going, but we can know if we are following the One who loves us most of all? It is about to get good.

* * *

Faith is jumping feet first into a story you don't know the ending to.

* * *

CHAPTER 2

Faith and Fear

I am not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.

Louisa May Alcott

The Comfort Zone

My comfort zone is reading a book on the couch, surrounded by my family, sipping a creamy cup of coffee. My uncomfort zone? Standing in front of a large group of people, speaking and drawing attention to myself. I would call this my now-is-when-I-really-start-sweating zone. After my first book came out, I started receiving invitations to speak at churches and retreats and moms' groups. I couldn't help thinking, Don't they know that writers write about their feeling so they don't have to actually stand up and TALK them? Life is funny that way. You think that you are at your best in your comfort zone. And God thinks, "You are comfortable in your comfort zone. You are at your best when you trust Me."

My friend Mark, pastor of National Community Church, emailed me and invited me to come speak in Washington D.C. for Mother's Day around this time. He invited me to speak three times in one weekend. My husband, Scott, and I had been on staff with Mark and his wife, Lora, for a year and a half before embarking on planting a church on the San Francisco peninsula. We love those people more than words can say. How fun would it be to hang out with them? I messaged him, "Yes! We would love to come." Then he emailed me again and said, "And let's do a women's event on Saturday, too." I knew that this was an opportunity that God had ordained for me. I have always told myself I won't let my fear hold me back. Why was I sweating while reading an email?

I wrote him back, "Sounds good!" And then I put my head down on my kitchen table and wept. For a solid ten minutes. Because of all the terror that was welling up within me. What if I failed? What if I was a horrible speaker? What if I embarrassed Mark and myself? What if I couldn't articulate what God was putting on my heart? What if the Holy Spirit checked out during my talk, and no one got a morsel of goodness from it? Or even worse, what if I wasn't funny? Because clearly, that is the most important thing of all. My heart was pounding, and I felt a little nauseous. I was three months out from the actual speaking engagement, and I was showing early signs of cardiac arrest. Sweet Jesus, help me now.

Funny thing ... sometimes the doors that God opens for us feel like the door that the Road Runner used to open for Wile E. Coyote in the cartoons. You know, the one that led off a cliff into nothingness. Now, I know that is super disheartening to hear. But it is the truth. God isn't opening scary doors because He doesn't like us. He doesn't want us to take a leap of faith just so that we can fall flat on our face. God opens doors of opportunity and risk because He knows who we are and who He created us to be. He sees our fear and says, "Now let's get rid of that." How do we get rid of our many and varied fears, you ask? By facing them. By walking into them. By looking them straight in the eye. So much for comfort zones.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Hope Sings by Susanna Foth Aughtmon. Copyright © 2017 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501820133
• ISBN 13: 9781501820137
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192