A Healthy Hope

I hope I make it through this day. I hope I can do good on this test. I hope the doctor gives me good news.  You gotta hope that she makes the right decision. Hope you feel better soon. Well I certainly hope that you learned your lesson. Do you hope to see your family soon?


How many of these statements or questions have you said lately? I think I have spoken each sentence at least once in the last few days. All of them are filled with good intentions but each is filled with uncertainty in the answer. Hope is unseen. At least with our natural vision.


We hear stories everyday on the news and from our friends about death and sickness and financial difficulties and other hard stuff. Sometimes it is almost overwhelming the hard stuff that people are facing on a daily basis. It can make us wonder what in the world is going on. We can feel the weight of all the hard stuff on our shoulders. We just sit back and hope it gets better soon.


If we are not careful, that kind of hope becomes unhealthy. It turns into wishful thinking when the answers don't come the way we want them to or when the situation doesn't improve quickly. But we have a Hope that while unseen can be as sure as breathing.


Our Hope is in Jesus. Our Hope is in truth. Our Hope is in faith. Our Hope is knowing that the One who has all of the answers is still on the throne. But the choice is ours each day. We can choose to have wishful thinking or we can choose to believe and trust and love and serve out of a healthy Hope.


Today is another busy day for me. I am already way behind in the schedule. My plan for the day is already unraveling. My time frame is already not long enough. My thought process is on the fringe of becoming overwhelmed panic. But right now I choose to go with Hope. The kind that although not seen is felt with such confidence that I know that I will be just fine. No matter what the day brings. 


I Hope you will choose that too! Praying for you, my friends...

So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside

 it often looks like things are falling apart on us, 

on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by 

without His unfolding Grace. These hard times are small potatoes 

compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration 

prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. 

The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. 

But the things we can't see now will last forever.

 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 

the message