Don’t lose hope!

I’ve been thinking about it and planning for it for several weeks now—next Thursday, Lord willing, Sonja will drive to Fort Mill and pick up my son’s three children and bring them back to Mauldin to spend the weekend with us.

If you know me at all you know I am crazy about my five grandchildren and a perfect day for me is spending time with them.

Thus, I must confess that there has probably not been a day since these plans have been made that I have not thought about next weekend.  That special weekend with David Lee, Ella, and Annie has colored and even helped shape every day since those plans were established.

My reaction has got me thinking this morning…

Hope is a very powerful thing.

Hope is the oxygen of the soul—life becomes empty, dreary, and gray without hope.

“What about living in the moment?”, you ask.

Most certainly. Live in the moment; make today a masterpiece; don’t waste the opportunities of today pining for what you hope will happen tomorrow.  But never underestimate the power of hope.

Today is not always enjoyable. Many todays are filled with pain, problems, and perplexities.  String together a week of those kind of todays and you can find yourself gasping.  String together weeks and months and even years of those kind of days (and it happens) and life can become unbearable.

But drop a tiny pinpoint of hope into the midst of those dreary and draining days and like a bomb of love and light, every day leading up to that future hope is brightened and made better and more bearable.

Somehow I sense am writing to someone in particular today. Maybe that person is you.

Emotionally and spiritually you’re gasping for air. Life has become an endless chain of responsibilities and pressure and you’re not sure how much longer you can go on.

What has happened is that you’ve lost sight of that which you once hoped for or perhaps you’ve stopped daring to even hope at all that things could be different and better for you.

Well that must change. Today must be the day you start hoping again.  Not some pie-in-the-sky fantasy, but good honest, fulfilling hope that is based on reality and the promises of God.  

You can do this and I encourage you to do it today.

• The ONE THING for today: Fine-tune vividly what it is you are hoping for–start planning and preparing for it; start talking about it…for hope is the oxygen of the soul.

Proverbs 23:18 (NKJV)

For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.