hope is your fuel

 

    There is a condition of the mind that is essential for us to live the kind of lives for which we long.  Call it hope, trust, or confidence … or faith.  It is the single greatest difference between those who try

and those who give up.  When it is lost we are sunk.

     Hope is the fuel that the human heart runs on.  A car crash or a diving accident can paralyze the body, but the death of hope paralyzes the spirit. 

     Hope is what prompts a young man and young woman to stand before a preacher and promise, “I do” … even though they have no guarantees.  And, hope is what fuels that same couple, years later—after broken promises and broken hearts, to give their promise another try.

 

When hope is lost, you’re sunk—

 

     Hope is why human beings keep bringing children into this broken world.  Hope is why there are hospitals and universities.

     No composer would agonize over a music without the hope that something of beauty will emerge.  No parents would agonize over a child without the hope that the child might live a better, nobler, happier life than did they.

 

The story of every character in the Bible is a story of hope—

 

     Hope is what convinced Moses to take on Pharaoh.  Hope is what drove the prophets to keep fighting on city hall.  Hope is what made twelve diverse men leave everything to follow Jesus.  Hope prompted the apostle Peter to climb out of a boat and walk on water.

     We can survive the loss of many things, but no one can outlive hope.  When it is gone, you’re done.  So, the capacity to stay focused on the presence of God in your life becomes supremely important.  When you become more focused on the overwhelming nature of the storm than the still, quiet presence of God, you’re in trouble.  The Bible speaks of this as “losing heart.”

     Your ability to live in hope rests on two things.  First and foremost, your belief in and relationship with the risen Jesus.  And secondly, what you feed your mind.

 

—adapted from, If You Want to Walk On Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat; by John Ortberg

 

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