I Hope

“And hope maketh not ashamed …” Romans 5:5

“Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Psalm 145:16

It’s been said, “I think, therefore, I am.” Well, I’d like to offer a different take on that line of thought: I hope. Therefore, I am - right where I always wanted to be. I was talking to my daughter the other day about how we are seeing the fruition of a lot of things that I wanted for them. At one time, just getting my kids through high school and paying for college seemed a distant dream. I saw a long, tough road ahead of me. But I hoped. And I planned.

A friend of mine always loves to paraphrase the scripture, “he that builds a building must first count the cost.” (Luke 14:28) Meaning, before you go on to do the great thing, you must first account for how you’re going to do it. You’ve got to have a plan of action. Plans are born of hopes. Sometimes, when I have a dream or real desire, I ask myself AND God, “How can I make this happen?” But oftentimes, it's not so much a concrete plan, as it is pointing my feet and just moving in the right direction, keeping my eyes focused on my goal.

Now, hope and faith are connected. Hope is the budding of the desire. It is your wish. It's the seed, sown. The route we take to reach our dream is the plan. But faith is the implementation of the plan. Faith acts on what it believes and hopes for. Abraham, also known as, The Father of the Faithful, is so called because he believed and acted on the word of God even when he could not see the end result. His faith was far sighted. He had to believe that what he was doing right now would eventually pay off, giving him what he desired AND what God had promised – descendents as numerous as the sand and stars, tracing their genesis to one man.

So I look back and see where my ambitions have brought me. What has God done for me? It’s been a heady journey. I can’t even begin to number my blessings, not just the random and unlooked for, but things I actually asked for – it boggles my mind. I’ve come to believe it was my hopes and dreams which gave me focus and determined my outcome. I was living life in the here and now but with my eye on the future. Just as no building suddenly appears, completely finished on the skyline without thought or prior planning, we cannot become the finished product without having some thought of who or where we want to be. It is our hopes and dreams that drive us; so keeping our focus on the big picture in our dealings now will pay off, eventually.

My conversation with my daughter began, innocuously enough, with a discussion about her involvement in church and choir. She really enjoys going and singing and being involved in ministry. I let her know, this was no idle occurrence but in fact, the realization of a dream. See, my sister and I had a really positive church experience growing up. We loved going to our church, which included a large family with children around our ages. And our choir, man, our choir could SANG! À cappella harmonies were our specialty. We were awesome! Church was where our friends were and our adopted family. We spent a good deal of our youth at that church during a crucial time in our lives.

It was truly a wonderful experience – we have so many great memories that we wanted the same for our children. So then, it’s really no coincidence that we achieved our objective. Our desire was fueled by watching so many children reach that milestone age, usually around fifteen or sixteen, where they don’t want to go to church anymore. They rebel against church and its teachings. They reject you, they reject family and go off to pursue their own thing. It’s really a critical time in their lives, making the difference between them being lost, sometimes forever, never to recover and between becoming successful, productive members of society. It’s that serious. I wish I were making that up. I’ve seen many young people walk away – sometimes they return after living a hard life and sometimes that hard life claims them.

So, you can see why this was so important to us – we knew the consequences and the devastation that could result from having a slack attitude regarding our kids. We hoped for more. We focused on what we truly wanted. We came up with a plan, implemented it and steered our children in the right direction. And the desired result was achieved. Not as easy as it sounds, believe me! I am forever indebted and grateful to my brother-in-law for having the same vision and actually providing an outlet for our children. He created a choir for them and kept them actively involved. He reached out to ALL the kids in that age group. Due to his efforts and persistence, these kids love church. They love to sing. They love being part of ministry. It keeps them focused and gives them purpose. Mission accomplished.

Right now, as we’re coming to the close of another school year, I’m actually closing a chapter in my life. I am seeing the dream realized in so many areas. God has done so much. I’ve made some hard choices but I am ever so glad that I did, because I am now seeing my payoff. Five years ago, starting over was terrifying. Wow. Was that really me lying in a puddle of my own tears? Yeah, it was. Was. WAS! Past tense, baby! I made it. I’ve done all that I set out to do. Picture me, pumping my fist and shouting, “YEAH!” Yeah. Back then, my dream seemed so far out of my reach. All I could do was hope and hold on. But I kept pressing forward with my hope ever before me, like a beacon, lighting the way. And look at me now.

Be blessed,

Loria

P.S. This article is dedicated to my friend and counselor who always made me feel like I would make it. I asked her once, “How can you listen to so many tragic stories?” Although my own was heartbreaking, I knew she’d heard worse. And she replied, “I also get to hear the victories, too.” So here’s to victory. And here’s to you. I know you’re reading this and celebrating with me. Thanks.