Trading Mourning for Gladness: How God Brings New Life Despite Our Deepest Losses by Wycliffe Bible TranslatorsSample

Hope Despite Lost Lifestyles

Think of an activity you love. Have you ever had to give it up due to finances, illness, injury or aging? Or maybe a necessary move took you to a new location or climate, and you can no longer do some of your favorite outdoor hobbies regularly.

Marty used to love to play sports, but a car accident caused so many injuries that he deals daily with chronic pain. He’s thankful to be alive, but he’s also grieving that his life can never be the same.

Emma’s college experience was not what she expected. After the first semester of freshman year on campus with fun activities, sports and a great learning experience, finances forced her to save money and move back home to struggle through engineering classes online.

Sam and Leslie loved their life together in the Colorado Rockies and spent many hours on the weekends hiking in the mountains. But a necessary job change forced them to move to the flat plains of Kansas, where hiking certainly isn’t the same.

In various ways, everyone knows what it’s like to feel a loss of lifestyle. So how do we find hope in the midst of this kind of loss?

For Marty, he’s channeling his love of sports into coaching kids teams in his community. He’s found great joy in teaching and mentoring a younger generation, with opportunities to influence and inspire them both on and off the field. And that joy helps him cope with his daily chronic pain.

For Emma, being home from college helped her to be an encouragement to her mom who was living alone. They grew closer, and their relationship became stronger.

Sam and Leslie learned to find new favorite hobbies — and they even invited their friends and neighbors to join them! They began to build a great community and connections in their new city and church. When able, they take vacations to the mountains that they love with new appreciation for God’s creation — and they don’t take a moment for granted.

Losing a favorite activity or lifestyle can steal your sense of “normalcy.” But if you choose to live in joyful, purposeful moments right where you are — instead of looking to the past and what you wish you could still do, or to the future and how your original dreams have been dashed — you can refocus your perspective. When you accepted Jesus, your old life and self died with Him on the cross (Galatians 2:20). Our old lifestyles were never again going to line up with the world’s standards. It was a loss. A death.

But the new life we have in Christ is so much more than any of us could have imagined. We have been set free, transformed and brought into a purpose that goes beyond today or even the rest of our lives! We can live out God’s Kingdom with joy in the everyday balanced with hope for eternity.

No matter our circumstances, we can say like the Apostle Paul: “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:12-13, NLT).

Reflection:

• What’s an activity or part of your lifestyle you’ve lost?
• Think of ways you could turn this loss into an opportunity to grow in your relationship with the Lord and encourage someone else.