Introducing Openhanded Hope
Bright sunshine in the cold of (Australian) July
Hello! I’m Ali - an Australian wife and mother of 3 who's being refined and carried by Jesus through the aftermath of a postpartum stroke. In his kindness and by his grace, may he help me testify to his power and faithfulness in all seasons.
Image by Peter Robinson from Pixabay
July sits heavy on my heart. It’s heralded by the joyous birthday of my third precious daughter, only to collide with the anniversary of the postpartum stroke (12 days later) that could have killed me and left with half of me in 2022.
I’m not alone. This month, friends remember significant bereavements, mourn moments that may never come due to the ravages of complex diagnoses, walk with uncertainty into futures that look far less pleasant than they did before. Perhaps July marks deep grief or loss of your own.
For many of us, July is just hard. It feels fitting that this month sits in the middle of the Australian winter.
Yet in this cold, cold season, I choose to start a Substack centred on Hope.
It’s not a rebellion, an act of defiance that says, “I’m still standing!” Because, quite honestly, sometimes I’m not. As shared by many others here on Substack, the wounding and the grief so often must coexist with the life that continues, and sometimes that means moving forward while the healing is only partially complete.
Nor is it an act of surrender, of submitting to my circumstance and relinquishing any desire to effect change. Three years on, I’m wrestling with how and how much to resume ‘normal’ life, and what place dedicated therapy should have in that. But I still do all that I can to bring about change in the situation.
Rather, it’s a testimony – a quiet, sure declaration that in the bitter reality of our broken, broken world, we are held, led and loved by Jesus, the eternal Son of God, our Saviour King and Potter-Shepherd.
I’m not a victorious ‘stroke survivor’, as if by my own efforts or greatness I lived through that event, and I don’t tell too my experience of stroke as something in the past , for it continues to impact Every. Single. Moment. of Every. Single. Day.[ii]
But I do testify to the power, the goodness, the love of the God who is over all and through all and in all[iii]: nothing in my life has ever taken him by surprise; he hears every prayer (and answers each one, too, though not always with one of the options I’d have drafted for the multiple-choice response set); and he will weave even this into his beautiful eternal story, the redemptive narrative of his work throughout history that will shine bright his glory before all of his creation forever.
I’d love for you to join me as I reflect on life, loss and the limitless love of the one who fulfils his eternal promises of lasting hope – the only one who is forever faithful[iv]. And I’d love to hear from you, too, as we encourage one another to stand firm in Jesus, now and always.
In hope,
Ali
Bible passages taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[ii] If only cute punctuation made it less real!
[iii] Ephesians 4:6 (NIV)
[iv] Heberews 10 includes such a powerful exposition of this truth.
