Don't Lose Hope

Monday, January 12, 2015

Sometimes.....well sometimes that little glimmer of hope you've been waiting for....it just finds a way to crack through the clouds like a ray of sun on a cold winter day. When it does, it warms the heart and it makes music to the soul that sounds a bit like this,
"I see a little improvement today ma'am. We'll do further testing again in two weeks to confirm."

That was what came spilling out of me and onto social media last Thursday as the littles and I walked, skipped, RAN WITH JOY to the car after leaving the Dr.'s office.

Just a few hours prior, we had a lot of questions, but we also had a lot of hope. Because that's what keeps you going, right? "You can lose everything girl and you'll be fine. But if you ever lose your hope, you've lost it all." Once spoken to me by a woman with wisdom beyond her years, I've clung to that line like a bee on honey ever since.

On our way to the appointment, as we made our way off of the exit ramp and were getting a little closer to the hospital my boy had asked me, "Mama what do you think they're going to say today?"

 "Well I don't really know son," I told him. Because I don't.

 "But if I had to guess I'd say we might hear some good news," I told him. Because if I'm going to err, it's always going to be on the side of optimism.

 There's a beautiful young woman I've become aquainted with and she's dying on the other side of town. She's got two precious children and what should be her whole life full of promise ahead of her. Yet she knows that she doesn't have much longer to live here on this Earth. What does she say nearly every time I talk to her? She says that she knows God knows best and she's just going to trust in Him. No doubt about it, her body is probably racked with pain sometimes. But she doesn't lose her hope.

 A friend I've known for years just got the news that her child has leukemia.

 A sweet young lady fights for her life and the life of her precious child at the homeless shelter. A life torn apart by addictions and unfortunate circumstances, she is trying to piece it back together again and have some sense of normalcy for herself and her child.

What would any of these people do, what would I myself do....if it weren't for the hope that is found in our Savior Jesus Christ? Romans 8:24 says that hope that is seen is no hope at all. Hope that is seen is called evidence. But hope that is not seen? That's called faith.

To the woman whose child awaits good news, to the young mother dying with cancer, to the woman whose child suffers from leukemia and the girl fighting for her life in the homeless shelter, what does hope look like for them?

The next verse says that we hope for what we do not have and we wait for it patiently.

Eleven was our number. For nearly one full year we got one bad report after another concerning my boy's kidney situation. And then after eleven months we walked into a hospital room one day and were told that it looks like we've rounded a corner. There is some improvement in the situation and low and behold hope delivered and a light could be seen at the end of the tunnel.

Friend, I don't know what your number might be, but I do know if you will wait patiently for it then you will see hope bring life to your circumstances.

That looks different for each and every situation. The good thing is that we know that in all things, ALL THINGS, God will work the situation out for the good of those who love Him.

That means that HE will work it out for our good even when we don't like what the outcome is. Even when it isn't what we thought it should be. Even if my boy has to have surgery again, even if he loses his kidney, if the young mother dies from cancer, the child suffers from her disease and the mother doesn't get her life back on track as quickly as she'd have liked, God is still at work. And he can turn each and every bad outcome from each circumstance into something He can use for our good.

For our good and for His glory.

I don't think you can go anywhere else in this world and find odds that will beat that. What a mighty God we serve.

We live in a fallen, sin-infested world and there will always be death, delay, disease and disruptions to contend with. But we have this glorious hope.... (Titus 2:13)

For that I am so grateful.

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