When I was thinking about what to blog about this week, I looked up and saw a sign on my desk that my daughter made for me several years ago. It has three simple but powerful words on it. Those words are hope, pray, love.

These three words are response words. They are how we should respond to just about any situation in our lives from the most personal to the broadest issue that affects us all. If we have a problem that we see no way out from under. This should be our response. This is inaugural week and whatever our personal feelings are about the incoming administration, this should be our response.

Hope means that we never loose site of the light at the end of the tunnel even if it is pin size speck. Hope keeps us from sinking into the complete darkness of despair. It means that when we don’t know, we believe that God does. It means that when we can’t see, we trust the one who sees all. It means that when we can’t figure it out, we can leave our problem in the hands of the one who goes before us and behind us.

Prayer is the means by which we come with our broken dreams, our botched attempts and our burden laden hearts and give them to our heavenly father. We can talked to him about the gnats to the gorillas in our lives. He is waiting to listen.

Love is the outward sign that we have hope and that we have prayed. When we have given God our concerns then we are not so focused on ourselves that we can’t love others. When we trust him to take care of the problem then we can love the people in the problem.

The practice of these three words are just that a practice. It’s not a one-time thing. It is something that we have to do over and over again. If the problem is ongoing, we may have to do it continually for the same problem and we must do it for each new way. It’s hard work but can you thing of a better way to do life?

“But the person who trusts in the Lord will be blessed. The Lord will show him that he can be trusted.” (Jeremiah 17:7) (NCV)