Hope

The old analogy of storms and rough patches in life is so often used because it hits the nail right on the head. Sometimes we're so deep in the storm, the situation looks so dire that it is impossible to imagine it ever subsiding. We won't survive, there is no hope.

No hope.

That is a devastating, ugly and painful place to be. It drains you of life, it seeps the marrow from your bones. Hopelessness is no man's friend.

But we can shed our hopelessness, our despair, by taking the smallest action of raising our eyes. Stop looking into the apparent disaster and, with whatever shred of energy is left within you, look to the one who promises to see you through it. You may not have the answers, you may be clueless as to how anything good can come of the inevitable bad just waiting down the road -but Trust God. Challenge him with hopefulness in your heart to show you his plan and provide -to keep faithfully providing- each step of the way.

We can't do it all, solve it all, fix it all, nor can we make the world go away. But we are called to have hope, to have faith and to keep trusting that the one who loves us more than we can ever comprehend has blessings waiting just around the corner. And remember, nothing and no one is a lost cause; none of us is so far gone that we are irredeemable.

Don't do it alone. Ask others to come along side you to help you keep paddling, faithfully watching for the storm to break and the clouds to lift. No matter how crappy it looks from below, it's always a clear sky above the clouds. Always, and nothing can change that.