The Incredible Fabulous Contraption called HOPE

So, let’s talk about my favorite subject… HOPE!

Hope floats, doesn’t it? I’m not talking about that super boring movie that, despite staring the amazing Harry and Sandra, is still not worthy of the discount bin at the dollar store. I’m talking about the beauty of a gift that always seems to make a dismal day brighter. It’s like being lost in a dark forest at night and discovering the path and a flashlight. It’s a gift from God, and that which is Divine is always going to lead to a brighter land.  It doesn’t take you out of the situation, but it does show you the way.

It is a yellow balloon floating in a grey sky.

Hope floats.

But it’s something we all grasp for. Hope does have its dark side. What was it Red said in “The Shawshank Redemption”?

“Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane”

…‘Course, it worked out pretty good for him, didn’t it?

I know what he’s saying.  However, hope is still worth the risk. Have you ever gotten to the place where you felt you could just give into despair? It would be so easy. There is a calling just to let go and drift silently into that goodnight. It’s a siren’s call to float away into the void.

But you hang onto the edge, fingers white and stomach in knots, sweat pouring down your forehead and a scream caught in your throat. Why?

…because there is always a tomorrow, and His mercies are always new in them.

This is hope. It floats, and that which is divine is always going to lead to a brighter land.

So don’t let go!!!

The amazing thing about hope is its ability to find you! There will be seasons where you feel you will never have the sun on your face again. The cave you wandered into was too deep and the air too thin to ever wander out. You can try to muster what you need, but what can be made from thin air?

That’s when you whisper a prayer and wait.

Some days you wake up and just tell yourself, “Today’s goal is just this…

…Breath in

…Breath out

…repeat”

That’s when you whisper the prayer again and wait.

Do this the next day too…

…and the next

…and the next

…and the next

Until one day, I can’t tell you when, you’ll wake up in that dark cave and someone will be sitting beside you.

It is hope.

“What do you think, buddy? Should we get out of here?”

“But I don’t know the way.”

“Oh, here, I have a flashlight for you. And, hey look… the path!”

Get up and follow it. Remember, that which is divine is always going to lead to a brighter land. And don’t worry if the path leads instead to a steep pit wall with no way out but up, and slick smooth walls.

Remember…

…Hope floats