Do you look around and just see darkness? Difficulty? Struggles? Hopelessness?
Quite honestly it’s hard not to, especially in the darkness of the winter season. And so many people out there only see that.
You might even ask how can anyone have hope in the middle of all of these bad things going on in our country and around the world?
Realistically it’s an important question. So many ask this question but aren’t truly looking for an answer or will listen to someone who is aiming to help them find the answer.
Like so many of you, I have been through some dark times where it was, or could have been difficult to find hope. To find the ray of light to hold on to.
These circumstances include going through multiple cancer journeys, years of depression and so many other things that a lot of us go through like friendship problems and issues at my job.
I had hope that even if my difficulties became too insurmountable and I did not survive, I had complete confidence in my Biblical faith where I would go. Heaven.
I also knew that if I were to successfully get through the difficulties, that I would be able to use what I had been through to help others.
For some of you, you might not be going through too many hardships personally, but you might be looking around at what you see going on in the country or even the world and see the hardship there. It’s true there is much to see as hopeless.
One dark aspect to this hopelessness is the idea that things have never been worse in history and that we are facing so many things that are new and no one has ever had to deal with before. Oh friend, if that is you, that is a dark perspective to have. Also it isn’t completely true. So many things going on have happened before at another time and in another place.
As our culture and technology continues to improve and change, the way it affects our lives also changes. Our access to so much instantaneous information, can become crippling. So crippling and overwhelming that we lose hope. The change is not that more bad things are happening, but the change is that our access to the information about what is happening has greatly improved and sped up. But that can get confusing.
In so many cases it is to our detriment. I say that to offer a glimmer of hope, if you are willing to grasp it. I think the fact that we know more information can be to our benefit. We know more, see more and are aware of more, so we can use that information to make more informed decisions and observations.
These decisions can help us. Even if it helps us know how to pray. We can see positive aspects to the level of knowledge we have. Instead of allowing the knowledge to cripple us and paralyze in hopelessness and fear.
But friend, this is not easy. It can be very difficult. Like so many things, this takes intentionality and choice. We all have free choice in what we think about and how we frame things in our minds.
You can choose to have hope or you can choose to be hopeless. YOU CHOOSE. You can choose to be overwhelmed by what is happening or to have hope. YOU CHOOSE.
As we continue on through the rest of 2024, the fact that you can choose to have hope and more forward should be a wonderful feeling. Even though it by no means promises anything.
When we see this as something that is out of our control, we lose so much.
Friend, I want you to see hope in the hopelessness, encouragement in the discouragement and to not give up. I don’t know all of the answers, I don’t know most of the answers but this I do know. You are in control to choose. Choose how you see move forward. My hope lies in the Bible and the promises found there.
Friend, I pray that you make choices to lead you to hope.
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Melodee Glassford 