CHOOSE THE PERSPECTIVE OF HOPE

So, you may be thinking…oh her life must be so good and so easy if she can title an article choose hope? Hope has nothing to do with where you are in life or where you are living or who you are in a relationship with or how much money or material belongings you have.

Hope IS A CHOICE.

It is not a false or fake happiness, nor is it pretending that everything is good when darkness surrounds you.  It comes from a much deeper real place that chooses to HOPE because Hope never fails (Romans 5:5).  

Hope is strictly a perspective.  It is the very real perspective that can keep you going when all else seems dark and grim or hard and lonely or desperate and fatal.  Hope is choosing to see just one good thing in your present moment.  So I didn’t say it was easy.  It takes grit.  It takes determination. 

It is easy to be positive when things are going well and money is in the bank and all your friends and family are supporting you.  I suggest to you that is not actually positivity (or hope) at all.  That is simply a set of circumstances that can change at any given moment.

Sometimes choosing positivity (Also Known As Hope) in the darkness is the only thing that makes sense as there are some things you can only learn in the storms of life because it opens your eyes wide to what you DO have and thereby opening the doors wide to the very real area of HOPE!

I recall living in my car as if it were yesterday.  I remember being so unbelievably grateful to God that I actually had a car to sleep in and prayed I could keep it a little while longer as it was due to be taken back.  I remember every night before I found a parking lot to fall asleep in there was this one furniture store I drove to after it was all closed and no one was around.  I parked in front of the window for about a half hour just staring in at this bed.  It seemed to me to be so regal, so special, so cozy and inviting, but most of all such a safe place to sleep.  I kept promising myself…” it’s ok, this is only temporary and I will have a wonderful beautiful bed like that one day.”  So, I drove there every night before finding a new parking lot to park and fall asleep in for the night.  It became what I would start dreaming about.  It was my goal…get a home and get a bed.  

There was also falling asleep in my car and I would try to fight it as I was scared to fall asleep even in my locked car with mace in hand, but as I fell asleep I prayed, begging God to protect me and help me through this time.  And, in the mornings, when I woke up, OH THE ABSOLUTE THRILL OF JOY that rang from my head to my toes that God protected me through the night and gave me the gift of another day to keep pressing on.

I would get ready to go on interviews during the day and kept my job waitressing at night.  There are people out there that are homeless that you wouldn’t know it from looking at them or talking to them.  I never told anyone in my life that I was homeless (living in my car) when I was walking through that.  I didn’t want to tell anyone at work for fear of losing my job.  I was homeless (in between living spaces temporarily), like so many others, because of a simple shortage of money once my roommate moved out.  

Then, the moment I signed my lease on my very own low-income townhouse was literally one of the proudest moments of my life.  God had brought me full circle.  Of course, I didn’t have any furniture, but one of the first things I wanted was A BED.  So, once I got my bed, I recall lying in it even during the day when I got home from work (a great new job that I was also thankful for and worked hard to get). I just laid there praising God thinking how amazing it was to have a bed and prayed for all those who don’t have a bed right now and for God to guide and protect them.

Another time of choosing HOPE was when Todd and I went through our marriage struggles early on…I recall feeling so very alone and desperate. God brought me something.  He brought me us super amazing mentors along the way that helped, encouraged, and discipled us through the tough times.  It still wasn’t easy or fun or happy, but there were multiple glimmers of hope and things to be thankful for in the midst of it all. 

This was a hard one for us because we were both so legalistic in our mindsets and thought once we had messed up, we were done and can’t go back to God.  Well, these friends and mentors God put in our path kept showing us God’s grace and to be honest with you, it was maddening to us both.  We kept thinking, what are they doing?  That isn’t how it works.  We are done.  We are finished.  There is no hope for us.  Well, God kept using these friends and mentors to pursue us and wouldn’t give up.  It was a very real hard struggle and still to this day I think that is the property of God I find the most humbling, awe-inspiring, and quite frankly maddening but am very grateful for it!  

So, what did that grace do?

IT CHANGED OUR PERSPECTIVE COMPLETELY.  

All the sudden it was ok to try.  Maybe we weren’t a completely lost cause.  

All the sudden it was ok to not self loathe endlessly.  Maybe we were lovable by God.

All the sudden it was ok to change.  Maybe we didn’t have to stay stuck in who the world thought we were.

All the sudden it was ok to laugh again.  Maybe laughter doesn’t mean the situation is funny…just means you have the freedom to have joy.

All the sudden we were being set free.  Freedom in Christ takes time but it was beginning.

For Todd and I this was the best thing that ever happened to our marriage, and we view it as a big blessing and gift from God. We are so thankful for those struggles as we would not have learned of God’s grace and His pursuing love of us.  We would not have begun to discover our freedom in Him and the ability to change and be who He designed us to be without all of this.

Caregiving for my paralyzed Mom, I had to keep it as light as I could in any possible given moment.  Every second of everyday life was beyond HEAVY on its own and under the weight of it, we could have easily been crushed.  BUT GOD.  God gives us a sense of humor and the joy of laughter and a way to look at things with a lighter perspective. 

So, we began to discover what was ok for our close circle to laugh at and make light of so we could get through the thick, heavy, dark, hard days that were ours for the foreseeable future.  Humor most likely saved my sanity during those days and Mom had a sense of humor as well.  Again, it doesn’t mean it was easy or happy..…it means if you choose to find something positive or a smidgen of hope or humor in strange places, it makes it bearable.  If it’s bearable, you can press on and keep going.  If you keep going, then you are moving forward!! 

Positivity (Hope) can also be just a way to focus on something else so the desperation and weight of the darkness doesn’t shut down your soul completely (which I get and have been there too).  It does NOT mean you are ignoring your circumstances, in fact, it means you are choosing to find something to be grateful for and focus on despite your circumstances and when things are desperate, that’s when you need HOPE the most!

There were other times as well in my own life that I would start to feel down and God would call me to focus on something good.

When I was caregiving for my mom while raising a family and remodeling our church and our home, I would thank God for the distractions of remodeling.  I thanked Him for the energy to also be training for a marathon so that I could have the focus to take care of my mom when I needed it.  The “distractions” were what kept me going.

There were times; however, that I just couldn’t choose positivity or hope anymore; and, thankfully God sent others to do that on my behalf and kept me during those times.  He seems to continually meet us RIGHT WHERE WE NEED TO BE MET and sometimes we may only see those meetings later on looking back in hindsight.  But, here is what we DO KNOW….

HOPE SAVES!

 “For in this hope we were saved Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what he sees? But when we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”  Romans 8:24.  

Where the world WILL TELL YOU TO GIVE UP, Hope says Keep Going!

Where the world WILL TELL YOU YOU CAN’T DO IT, Hope says YOU GOT THIS!!

Where the world WILL TELL YOU TO IT’S TOO HARD, Hope says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

Where the world WILL TELL YOU IT’S ALL OVER, Hope says, I will never leave you or forsake you and it’s not over until I say it is.

Put those perspective glasses on, dig in deep, and with great determination, seek out the Hope that is there waiting for you!   You CAN DO THIS!!! 

Please drop a comment below and share with us when you chose Positivity and Hope in your life despite your circumstances. 

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