A step towards Abounding in Hope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When we ran a wilderness thing in the mountains, we had a fun little game we'd play on our ropes course. \u00a0These adventure courses and team building are,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A step towards Abounding in Hope\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we ran a wilderness thing in the mountains, we had a fun little game we'd play on our ropes course. \u00a0These adventure courses and team building are,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fibonacci Faith: Changing Everything\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-07T18:27:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3484\/3304781586_7b18f87bc2_m.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Richard Dahlstrom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Richard Dahlstrom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/\",\"name\":\"A step towards Abounding in Hope\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-07T18:27:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-06-07T18:27:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/35cc34ea723fe19cdf6bfe9446fde728\"},\"description\":\"When we ran a wilderness thing in the mountains, we had a fun little game we'd play on our ropes course. \u00a0These adventure courses and team building are,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A step towards Abounding in Hope\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/\",\"name\":\"Fibonacci Faith: Changing Everything\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Richard Dahlstrom\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/35cc34ea723fe19cdf6bfe9446fde728\",\"name\":\"Richard Dahlstrom\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c70ef6941167d00acda35b40d90cb1e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c70ef6941167d00acda35b40d90cb1e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Richard Dahlstrom\"},\"description\":\"As Pastor of Bethany Community Church in Seattle, Richard teaches with vision of \\\"making the invisible God visible\\\" by calling people to acts of service and blessing. 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{"id":440,"date":"2010-06-07T12:27:46","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T18:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raincitypastor.wordpress.com\/?p=440"},"modified":"2010-06-07T12:27:46","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T18:27:46","slug":"a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/06\/07\/a-step-towards-to-abounding-in-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A step towards Abounding in Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

To make things more exciting, we had our over-confident participants do the ropes course blindfolded. \u00a0They\u2019d climb the rope ladder and the put on a blind fold and navigate the rest of the course by listening to voices from the ground. \u00a0But down on the ground, we had every voice but one shouting lies; telling the blind girl to move left when she should go right, or to reach higher when she really needed to squat down. \u00a0Always, though, there was one voice that was the true one. \u00a0And always, one she heard the true voice she was home free, able to quiet the lying voices by listening closely for the truth in the midst of noise, and responding to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sheep hear my voice and they follow me\u201d is what the Bible says,<\/a> and God knows that it needs to be true because there are plenty of other voices out there telling us lies. \u00a0We\u2019re told that we are what we own, that we are what we wear, that we are our % of body fat, that we are who we sleep with, where we travel, what music we listen to. \u00a0Those voices are all, to be polite, rubbish.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one voice that matters, and it\u2019 the voice that tells me who I am because of the reality of Christ. \u00a0Though I could argue with a few details, I like the list presented here<\/a> that reminds me of my identity in Christ. \u00a0I have a similar list sitting on my desk at work<\/strong><\/em>, and read it often to remind me of who I really am. \u00a0Listening to God remind me that in Christ I\u2019m filled, whole, adequate, deeply loved, is significant for me because I struggle with inadequacy and self-doubt, and am prone to disengagement from all things meaningful because of this. \u00a0The good news though, is that when I listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd and thank Him for these fundamental truths, I find the very thing of which I speak in yesterday\u2019s sermon: \u00a0encouragement in the scriptures. \u00a0The fruit of this is hope, as I spoke of yesterday<\/a>, and as Matthew Parris wrote about here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Learn to listen for God\u2019s voice in the midst of the cacophony that\u2019s raging. \u00a0Hear it. \u00a0Believe it. \u00a0Find increasing freedom. \u00a0Abound in Hope.<\/p>\n

Cheers<\/p>\n

Feel free to share habits you\u2019ve developed to listen for God\u2019s voice in your own life. \u00a0Thanks.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"