Tag Archives: hope

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I Believe

This morning my family has received grave news about the condition of a dear cousin of mine. Almost a week ago he was in a traumatic motorcycle accident-no helmet. At the scene, paramedics reported posturing which is an indicator of severe brain stem trauma. At the hospital, he was put into a sedated coma as the brain continued to swell. My mama called to tell me the news and all I could do was run home and fall to my face in prayer and tears, petitioning for God’s grace on my cousin’s life. Hours flew by, the night folded, I fasted and faded in and out of praise, prayer, petitions, tears, joy and peace until the following afternoon.

I’ve reached out to every large prayer ministry I can find and shared my cousin’s story. I just believe these petitions in prayer will pull at the heart of God.

A couple days ago, the doctor’s lifted the sedation to wake my cousin up. But this morning, after no sign of life in his body, the neurosurgeon has said my cousin is ‘gone’ and the brain stem is beyond repair. I just want to collapse in a pool of tears as my heart hurts for the sweet times we had even within this last year. God used my cousin Jesse in such a special way at Christmas time, to encourage my aching heart. This cannot be the end.

In the guest room of my house, I play a Christian radio station 24/7. As I sat on the floor wondering what to do next, I heard the station running a donation drive and felt compelled to ‘make life’ in the face of death. So I picked up the phone and asked to make a donation in honor of my cousin–not memory. I told them I wanted to help give life to others who find encouragement and a life with Christ through positive Christian radio, and that even in the wake of those words of death concerning my cousin, I just proclaim life in the name of Jesus through this experience.

As my family is now in the process of making a decision to remove my dear cousin Jesse from ventilator support, I am preparing to fly home to be with them in this difficult time. My heart can’t get there fast enough as one by one I hear their tears of grief over the phone. My heart too breaks so deeply. It’s a very lonely place to be when you’re hundreds of miles away from family during a tragedy. I am in tears but I hold onto to God so tightly. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but I believe in the healing power of Christ… still.

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More Than A Job, It’s About the Journey

There was a time I packed up my car and drove hundreds of miles on a word from God that there was a job awaiting me. There were no openings and over several months God brought many interview opportunities my way. 

Today I have a new job and it’s not in the place God called me to a year ago. But I still believe in what He told me. You see, perhaps it was never about actually getting that job as it was about the journey there. Some serious pursuit, passion and patience went into His call. My faith and hope in following God into the unknown, even when it didn’t look like my version, seemed mostly crazy by friends and family. Maybe all along, it was about increasing my hope, stretching my faith, trusting in God, growing my pursuit in His calling, than it ever was about the final destination. And maybe even the ‘let down’ of never actually getting that job wasn’t really a let down at all. Maybe it was about still having faith to follow God, even if… His leading didn’t look like mine.

And I learned one more thing in that journey. I spent more time anticipating and daydreaming about the future, that I missed out on enjoying the daily adventures getting there. I had a tunnel vision focus on the result and missed opportunities of joy in the ‘here and now’. I think it’s interesting that we so often want to know God’s plan for us, but the truth is, we’d sit in anticipation for ‘tomorrow’ and miss out on today.

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No Fear of Failure

When will we ever learn that there are no hopeless situations, only people who have grown hopeless about them? What appears as an unsolvable problem to us is actually a rather exhilarating challenge. People who inspire others are those who see invisible bridges at the end of dead-end streets. Whether your circumstance is a relationship or a job, be inspired to continue hoping and persevere!

“The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” -Proverbs 28:1

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” – Romans 5:3-4

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God’s Plan For Hope

For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 29:11

God knows, right down to the final nub, exactly where you are in life. He sees. He cares. He is aware. And best of all, He is touched by it.

The enemy of our souls wants you to think differently. ‘God doesn’t care. He’s left you in this mess for so many months. How unfair! Those around you, those at work, your neighbors, live like the devil, and they’re making it fine. And here you don’t even have a job. You don’t even have enough to cover the credit card bills. What kind of God is that?

Or maybe some young mother-to-be, stretched to the limit already with other young children and crushing responsibilities, cries out in her heart, ‘My situation is more than I can bear!’ And God replies, “My daughter, I know what I am doing. I know the pain of your heart right now. I know you feel overwhelmed, overloaded, pressed down. But believe Me, I am touched with your situation. And I have a plan! I am working out the details of your deliverance even now. Trust Me!”

-Charles Swindoll; Moses, A Man of Selfless Dedication