A HOUSE OF COPE...AND SEEDS OF HOPE

Just get out the gate!!!

• 1 Corinthians 10:13 “ There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but with the temptation also, make a way to escape, that you will be able to bear it.”

• I do think too much…and have lived in “cope mode” for most of my life since my youth: survival, resourcefulness, little expectations other than the basics. Certainly not a “death wish”...but the polar opposite of a “top producer.” That pernicious phrase was the real estate template for many, during my 17 years as a residential Leasing agent in San Francisco. I was persistent and dogged and very street-smart but not nearly a “top producer” of anything but survival. Leasing was not overwhelmingly complex, although leasing did have its required structures, which foundation I laid previously as a resident apartment manager of two separate buildings over ten years. I did manage to get a real estate licence, one of my few accomplishments, passed the test on try number one. I learned more from the field of leasing than any real estate book taught me, that is for certain. This is my measured method, “Learn by doing, directly.” Works well!

• Showing apartments in SF was a strangely solitary event, amidst the crowd. I could be alone in the lobby of a dignified old building, usually in the north end of SF, sitting on the stairs waiting for people to arrive. Then I would show the apartments, being trusted with keys, people’s possessions if they were not at home, and basic security. I am indeed, “ protective by nature” and used that empath ability to suss out trouble or discord. I took my responsibilities very seriously! I never had any problems related to that.

• I know I helped others to some degree...deeply intuitive type that I am....but always the gulf was remaining between. “Cope” remains a basic foundational structure of relatively simple living, “survival”.

• In general, I dont trust.

  God, I trust.

  Humans, I seldom do.

• Strange being a loner for my 31 years in SF, a city of many eccentric loners all packed together at the tip of a Peninsula, hilltops all over the place...rowdy, raw, rebellious, radical, unique.

• I fit right in...until God got hold of me, after 35 years as a Prodigal to my Christian faith.

• Did I ever tell you...about “Stealth Papa”??? In the “street-y” vernacular,

  “He don’t play fair.”

• You can play poker and chess and Clue and Monopoly...but you cannot outplay God. God knows things ( and He will share some of them with you, if you respectfully ask!)

• “Cope” is a somehow dangerous word, full of deep sighs ( familiar), deep discouragement, surface living and essentially to give up before even getting out the dratted gate. I used to scold myself , saying “ Just Get Out The Gate!” , as an admonition and exhortation...and still I was mostly stuck at the gateway, “impediment-minded, ” thinking forever.

• Cope derails you, drains your strength, takes away any confidence of “coming up and over” or conquering more than an inch of road or path. Stuck at the gate brings shimmers of dreams in the far distance…but sorrow is frustratingly undergirding and draining.

  Defeats the purpose.

• I can tell you however, the patient and merciful hand of God is ever so gently moving in the clump of sorrow that has been so much of my life. Astonishing.

  Getting old is tough. I certainly, at 73, did not expect to live to Elder age. I know three people at my little church who are over 90. They just seem like rocks to me, not bothered by so much.

  Me, I can feel a gnat on Mars...

• Cope is defeat.

  And yet, God does not get defeated.

• God remains a Stealth Papa. Crafty, fully aware of the machinations of both devils and humans, He quietly plans, He quietly makes good plans for His children, He calls us to repentance and fellowship and relationship, as kids of our Heavenly Father.

  He cannot be defeated. He actually takes the weak as His partners, as fully odd and strange as that is. (See 1 Corinthians 1:27, as I have used many times before.) God’s Son Jesus Christ, God in human form, volunteered to come down into this mess of a world and live as we all live, in mess and sorrow and take on our direct experiences. No One else ever did that. He did not have to…but He did.

• When cope (or any manifestation of it) takes precedence in your life, it does close doors ahead of you, without your permission.

• God is both the gatekeeper and the gateway. He knows the ins, He knows the outs, He knows the secret passageways, the trap doors and yes, He knows the WAY OF ESCAPE. The devil is the jailer, the enslaver, the tormenter, the bully. He thinks he still holds the keys...but Christ Himself took the keys of hell and of death when, after Calvary, He entered the dark domain of the thief and forcefully took the keys from satan. He freed the captives.

• Do I want to be free? Really free??

  Hard and difficult question.

• To some degree, freedom is terrifying...out in the boonies alone, walking by sheer instinct in the primal realm. Instinct is good...but strangely enough, sometimes still a coping mechanism. The plod, even though sometimes a holy thing, is slow and not dramatic. I am most definitely NOT a stage performer, I work in the background!

• Instinctive types simmer, smell the air currents, feel the “ vibe”, examine the hidden roots and entangling vines, sometimes crawling in the underbrush instead of seeking the stage or front line. Never on stage, always supporting.

• San Francisco was full of instinctive types, and hence why I fit right in...until the way became too overwhelming and costly for a sensitive soul like myself, fighting to survive. I eventually, by the ( not fun) circuitous route, had to leave, driven out by animals bigger than I. I have been marginally homeless twice in my 73 years, more not fun. That being said, while the road has been messy, scary...and mysterious...it remains a place of refuge, up here in the boonies, as a no-longer city dweller.

• God’s way brings no sorrow with it. He actually does give a “way of escape.” He is my seed of hope, even in tiny hops daily. No giant leaps for me...but short hops with Papa God. I will take the hops, as long as I keep moving toward Him.

  Wendy Elizabeth Williams, Friday, April 10, 2026

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  --Please pray for me! Thank you, Wendy