It’s not wishful thinking. It’s not a vague dream. Hope. It’s the fuel for a life lived believing in the love of God.
Looking back through some of my posts, I realized that I’ve spent a great deal of time letting you know how messed up and broken I am, what a lot of my questions are, and when I have a bad day or trying circumstance, but I tend to not write too much about when I feel together and whole, have the answers, and enjoy a great day.
It would appear my efforts to be transparent may be leaving folks with the wrong impression—that life is nothing but heartache and woe.
This, dear friends, is not the case!
Maybe my negative slant on hope comes from me not wanting to brag about my blessings, but then I fall prey to the irony that I’m still not being real with you, if I’m not showing you my joy.
So I thought it might be appropriate to share with you the hope that blesses every day for me. As you already know, some days staying bright-eyed and encouraged is like pulling my chin up to the bar hanging in the doorway to our garage…impossible.
Yet still hope remains.
And that has nothing to do with me.
Somehow I’m being transformed, and I can’t give you a step by step on how this is happening just an assurance that it is. My confidence is growing. My fears aren’t running the show like they used to, and my heart feels more like an actual offering instead of a fragile thing that has no home. I’m different. I’m not the person I was.
I don’t spend a lot of time looking back though. Instead I’m putting my eyes on what’s to come. That’s where hope lives.
This week is the week of HOPE for the advent season (that’s one of the purple candles).
How’s your hope doing today?
Are the negatives of life outweighing your positives?
Does change feel like it’s beyond your grasp and an impossible journey?
Have the hits just kept coming with no end in sight?
Better days are coming.
We are loved by a God of hope who knows our struggles, sees us when we fail, and who can turn even the worst relationship, greatest loss, and most grave diagnosis into a place where we are able to find HOPE.
Sometimes we may need others to hope for us ‘cause we just don’t have it in us anymore. I’ve been there too. Those times eventually come to an end, and the sweet rays of glorious hope wrap their warmth around us, showing us that this isn’t all there is. That there’s more.
Have hope, sweet friends. There is more.
Be still.
And know that He is here.
