Author: Kathy Young Deegan

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”~John 14:27

“Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me,
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be. With God as my Father, Brothers all are we. Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.”

These are the words of the familiar  song,  “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” However, we live in a world where the threat of violence both locally and abroad has become the norm. Recent events have left us wondering: Is peace on earth even possible?

In John 14:27, Jesus promises to give us His peace. The peace Jesus offers will ease our troubled hearts and calm our fears. However Jesus’ peace is different from the world’s, because He calls us to go beyond personal peace to become peacemakers. In other words, rather than just seeking peace for ourselves, He calls us to share the peace we find with all who seek hope. In light of the perpetual violence we see again and again, we must remember that peace is powerful. For it is His peace that has the power to not only change our lives, but also the world around us.

Reflect:

What peace has God given you?

How will you share this peace with others today?

Listen: The Harlem Boy’s Choir “Let There Be Peace On Earth”

 

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!  Do you not perceive it? ” ~Isaiah 43:19

On the first day of the new year, we greet one another saying, “Happy New Year!” This first day is “happy” because after what was likely a challenging last year, the New Year is a time for renewal. We set goals, make new resolutions, and celebrate the hope of things to come.

Isaiah reminds us that God grants us the grace to start anew saying, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Do you not perceive it?” Perceiving the “new thing” that God is doing is not simply forgetting the difficult things in our past, but rather allowing God to renew our hope, strength, and perspective. Ultimately, the “thing” God is making “new” this year is us.

Where do you need God’s renewal?

How will you allow Him to make you new this year?

“Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom He is pleased.” ~Luke 2:14

On the very first Christmas evening, a few ordinary shepherds had their world interrupted by a terrifying visit from the angel of the Lord.  The angel quickly assured them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring joy to all people.” The shepherd’s frightening encounter with the divine had a greater purpose,  to announce the birth of the Prince of Peace.

This fourth week of Advent we light the candle of peace.  We do this in hopeful anticipation of the one who will bring true peace to the world. In our most fearful moments, we can trust God to transform our scary episodes into  sacred experiences. When we open our hearts to this possibility, we join with the angels in worship saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven.”

 

Where in your life has God granted you peace in the midst of fear?

How can you share His peace this Christmas week?

 

 

 

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” ~Psalm 98:4

“Joy to the world, The Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing.”

These familiar words are from the popular Christmas Carol “Joy to the World” written by  Isaac Watts in 1719 with music composed by Handel. The lyrics are primarily taken from Psalm 98 where the Psalmist is extolling the praises of God by singing a ‘new song’ thanking Him for the marvelous things He has done. Verse 4 states that this praise extends to the ends of the earth, where people of all nations join in praise of their newborn King.

This third week of Advent we light the candle of joy.  We do this in joyful expectation as earth prepares to ‘receive her King.’  The Advent season is the time to let ‘every heart prepare Him room’ and in so doing, we invite joy into our hearts as well.

Where in your heart are you lacking joy?

How will you ask God to prepare your heart to receive His joy this Christmas?

 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

~I Peter 1:3

The word hope is often an ambiguous term. We “hope against hope,” or have “false hopes.” We “get our hopes up” and “hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” Over the years Hollywood has given us ‘hope’ themed movies such as Hope & Glory (1987),  City of Hope (1991), Hope Floats (1998), Hope Springs (2003) along with the various television series of Saving Hope (2012) and Raising Hope (2014).

This first week of Advent we light the candle of hope.  We do this in anticipation of the birth of Jesus who, as Peter reminds us,  is our “living hope.” In our hopeless circumstances we are then able to turn to a living God who provides living hope to all who seek Him.

Where in your life do you need a living hope?

How will you share the hope that you have with others this week?

“Don’t be afraid…Don’t you see?  You planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good. “ ~ Genesis 50:20

At our Summer Hope4Hollywood Ladies Tea: Stories of Grace, one of our ladies shared how God granted her grace in the midst of a difficult journey. “Many years ago when I was a college student at Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C.  I met a handsome graduate student from Sierra Leone, West Africa. We began dating and 9 months later were married the day after my graduation. I was so in love. He was intelligent, tall and always a gentleman in my presence.

In our marriage, like all marriages, we had our ups and downs.  He was an excellent provider, bills were paid, we had comfortable accommodations, and took two vacations a year. But I often found that he was emotionally unavailable and his authority was absolute. Throughout our married life he also continued to maintain his social life as if he were still single. I was not allowed to question any of his behavior.

Once we settled into our new home our lives seemed to be much like a storybook.  But the undercurrent was that he continued to maintain a separate social life. There were always whispers of my husband’s infidelity amongst my colleagues at the university where we both worked and I recall seeing him getting into cars with different women.  At those times I often felt something was wrong with me—that I needed fixing. So I would go to God in prayer to ask him to take away my “wrong attitude” towards my husband. One day, 11 years into our marriage, I went to God again. This time I did not ask him to ‘fix me”. Instead I asked God to start fixing my husband. Two days later, my prayers were unexpectedly and abruptly answered. My husband filed for divorce. I felt as if the bottom had dropped out of my stomach. How could this be God’s answer to my prayers?

It was then that I remembered one of my favorite stories in the book of Genesis. There Joseph experienced many devastating events from being sold by his brothers to being falsely imprisoned. Yet through it all he not only relied on God but surrendered all of his difficulties. I decided that if I could surrender my trials that were intended to harm me, God would be able to turn to them to good. Throughout the rest of my life I did just that, holding myself and my children up,  all while earning 3 degrees.   And along the way I embraced the  many ‘grace-filled helpers”— wise elders, friends, community leaders, stepping in to provide an answer, listening ear or to provide encouragement and support. 

These days I am in a new season of trials—this time with medical illness. Every day I am attempting to live a life of surrender, believing that God has the power to bring good even from this.”

What difficult trials are you currently enduring?

How can you surrender these so God can use them for good?

 

“Dear sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

 ~ James 1:2-4

At our Spring Hope4Hollywood Ladies Tea: Stories of Joy, one of our ladies shared how God granted her joy in the midst of a difficult journey. “For as long as I can remember I have dreamed of being a doctor. So in college I earned high grades and diligently studied for the MCAT exam.  I was devastated to learn the news that my scores were too low to even be accepted into any schools. And to add to my sense of failure, my test scores did not improve and then I learned  that I had to wait 2 long years to reapply. I felt defeated,  mentally and emotionally exhausted, and my joy was gone. Why had my efforts failed?  After much prayer and wise counsel, I realized that God hadn’t taken away my opportunity but had just given me more time. He had gifted me with 2 extra years. This gift of time allowed me to save money as well as complete a Master’s Degree. Somehow my ‘struggle’ was turned into an opportunity to find joy.

Two years later I was overjoyed to receive the news of my acceptance into medical school!  I felt so blessed to finally have the opportunity to fulfill my dream of becoming a physician. But the transition to another state was very difficult.  Everything was brand new. I felt all alone and medical school was very challenging. Perhaps you have heard of the term imposter syndrome? That was me my first 2 years in medical school. I felt like I was pretending to be something I was not. Not only were classes a daily challenge but my relationship with my longtime boyfriend was disintegrating. I was an emotional and physical wreck, having doubled in size from all the stress. I was at another low point, discouraged and defeated.  How and where could I find joy in all of this? Once again I had to consciously choose to hang onto anything that would bring me joy.  Slowly over the next year God began to restore joy through the love of my friends and family.

Today I work as a medical resident and  am being challenged and tested yet again. I am working an unimaginable number of hours, without even time during my busy days to use the restroom or take a break. At times I feel under appreciated and devalued. Even harder is dealing with the daily burden of breaking bad news to my patients.  I recall recently delivering the news to my 30 something patient that she has stage 4 terminal cancer which will likely take her life within the next year. How do I find joy in the midst of all of this?

As in all my other dark times, I remember that I needed to take time to stop and reflect. And so one day at work, despite having a morning clinic session and a full patient load, plus a multitude of other tasks,  I decided to take my wheel-chair bound patient into the healing garden. We sat outside for nearly an hour, just enjoying the sun on our faces. He was so grateful to get out of the confines of his room and have a sense of something normal again. His smile and authentic gratitude reminded me of why I wanted to go into medicine in the first place.

James 1 reminds us that our struggles are actually “opportunities.” So each day I am making an effort to view my difficulties as opportunities–opportunities for joy and growth.  Hopefully I can turn these newfound opportunities into helping me develop into an even better friend, sister, daughter, partner and physician in the future.

What struggles are you currently facing?

How can you consider these struggles as “opportunities” for joy?

 

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well.” ~Psalm 139:15

I was born and raised here in Los Angeles, where my dad was a television writer and producer.  I remember all the cancelled vacations, as well as long days and sometimes months that my dad wasn’t home. I even recall overhearing my parent’s arguments at nights when I was supposed to be asleep. . As a result, I began to blame “Hollywood” for the toll it was taking on our family. My plan after graduation was to move to Oregon and become a music teacher and never live in Los Angeles again.

Looking back, I don’t remember praying and asking God about my plan – I just jumped into it assuming I knew myself well enough to decide my own future. It was three years into my music degree that I began questioning, “Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path?” And I began to feel God pointing me in a different direction.

This crushed me. Music education was my identity. I had always loved teaching music, and had been told that I had a lot of potential as a music educator. So, with some resentment, I took the first courageous step to drop the “education” part of my major and finish off a much less demanding general music degree.

I suddenly had more time to explore other interests so I quickly joined the student leadership team of my college Christian fellowship. Being on this close-knit team, I learned how to read the Bible, developed an incredible love for and reliance on prayer, and ultimately tuned in to hearing God’s voice. For the first time, I was becoming someone who could say yes to Jesus every time He called me.

About halfway through my senior year, my mom told me that a family friend of ours in LA, Karen Covell, was looking for a new employee for her ministry Hollywood Prayer Network.  Now, just to make the irony clear, one thing I had definitely never done in my life was pray for Hollywood. So I took a few months to think, talk, and pray about it. Through my prayers, I felt like Jesus was telling me there was no way I could avoid this call. He was telling me to go. He was challenging me to go back to LA and serve his people in Hollywood.

Psalm 139 reminds us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator. In this process, God was encouraging me to let go of the image I had created for myself. Learning to rely on God’s image of who I am allowed me to courageously give up my self-made path for His perfect plan.

As I now serve in Hollywood ministry, God continues to teach me more every day about courage.  I have learned that God often gives me smaller things along the way so that when it comes time for bigger risks, I am so used to trusting and taking leaps of courage that I am ready to take on a bigger challenge. It took courage for me to give up my path and accept God’s. And now I can see that it was Jesus who was giving me courage during these moments of small yes’s, proving over and over that trusting Him in my weakness is courageous.

“When life is heavy and hard to take, Go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.”

~Lamentations 3:27-28

At our Summer Hope4Hollywood Ladies Tea: Stories of Hope, Ayanna Anene shared how God brought hope during her move to LA. “During my last year of college in Philadelphia, I became close friends with a fellow student who had recently given her life to God. Her shining example of a life set ablaze for God left a major impact on my life and influenced my decision to recommit my life into His hands shortly before my college graduation. I began to boldly pray about what would happen after college asking God to close every door that was not for me, and open the door to His best.

After applying to over 50 jobs, I was rejected by nearly every one! Then, one day, my brother sent an email for a position in Southern California. Living on the West Coast was not included in the roadmap for my life, I thought.  As it would happen, I was asked to interview for the California-based position and within a few short weeks, I received a job offer!

I decided to trust that God heard my original prayer, closed many doors and opened only this one. I thought to myself, this is either totally God, or I totally missed it. I trusted that even if I somehow misread the situation, He would be there to take care of me.

As I prepared to uproot my life and move across the country, something in me sensed that I was entering a new chapter. However, I had no idea that I was entering one of the greatest seasons of trials in my life. My first few weeks and months of living in LA were challenging as I was physically distant from friends and family members. That coupled with being in a foreign environment and having limited transportation launched me into a season of deep loneliness and depression.

In the midst of this dark season, a favorite passage in Lamentations encouraged me to patiently “wait for hope to appear.” As I waited for hope, I started to see signs of hope all around me. I like to call these signs “God’s winks.” These winks affirmed that I was not alone. Some of God’s winks came in the form of vivid dreams filled with His promises that had not yet come to fruition in my life.  Other “winks”that assured me of God’s presence  came in the form of street signs where I lived. Residing on “Providencia Street” and “Victory Blvd” reminded me of His divine providence and that I could always find victory in Him.

Seven years later, I realize that my story does not have a tidy bow of finality or a “happily ever after” ending. Each day I must intentionally slow down and fully appreciate the tokens of hope that God sends my way. There are days when I don’t feel hopeful or joyful but at those times I strive to appreciate the many “winks” and reminders of His presence. Through it all, I am learning to wait for hope. “

Where in your life do you need hope?

How will you look for God’s “winks” this week?

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up;  you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my  ways. ” ~Psalm 139: 1-3

 

At our Spring Hope4Hollywood Ladies Tea: Stories of Faith, one of our ladies shared how God granted her faith in the midst of a difficult time. “10 years ago, my father was diagnosed with cancer and I became pregnant with my first child. For the next 3 years, I was overwhelmed with medical visits for my father: the oncologist and surgeon, chemo and radiation, nursing homes and hospitals. At the same time, my daughter was born with eczema and was covered with rashes from head to toe. She felt itchy and uncomfortable all the time so we went back and forth to pediatricians and dermatologists. Lacking sleep day after day was my new normal.

After a 3-year battle, my father passed away. The year was 2010, during the deep economic recession. The company I worked for went through significant management changes and I had to find another job. I still remember the day I was making funeral arrangements was the same day of my final job interview. It was such a difficult day.

With a young child, a new job and my husband starting a new business, I was stressed out. And yet I wanted another child. Getting pregnant was yet another stressful journey. I was relieved and excited the day I finally saw the “+” sign on my pregnancy test. My happiness only lasted for 4 short weeks, as I was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy. I made the decision to accept an injection to terminate my pregnancy. Even though it was a logical and necessary choice, I had a strong sense of guilt.

Feeling the loss of my father and my baby, I also had chronic sleep deprivation, hormones running wild and constant work stress. I lost my appetite and motivation to do anything. My marriage was put to the test. My mind was foggy and the voice in my head got louder and louder, shouting only negative thoughts. I felt like I was going to lose everything I treasured and that my world was about to collapse. I had this fear and anger inside me that felt like a low-grade fever. Finally, during a session with my marriage counselor, she told me: “you’re suffering from depression.” This realization confirmed that I had to do something or I really would lose everything.

The dictionary defines faith as, “Complete trust in someone or something.” My faith at this time was “head knowledge” that God existed and had a plan for this world and maybe even for me. However, because of my circumstances, my depression and my struggle with guilt, shame and fear, I often thought that God was disappointed with me. So, I spent many years ignoring the small voices from my body, my heart and the Holy Spirit. I had been trained to “march forward” even though I was hungry, tired and hurting. I had learned to keep pace with the world, not with God.

During this time, I was comforted by the words of Psalm 139 which reminds me that God sees and knows me, even my thoughts. This truth gave me the courage to reach out for help. After much counseling, exercise, a new part time job and taking courses led by Hope4Hollywood, I am in much better shape physically and spiritually. I’m much closer with God.

It has been 6 years since I lost my baby. I can’t say I’m completely out of it, but for now, I’m better. My faith has grown to see that God’s plan for the world does include me. His love is so full and He wants to share that with me. I have come to understand that God seeks to bring good out of the hardest situations of our lives and will use all situations to bring us closer to Him.