Hope - What Warriors Are Made of

You say you're disappointed, disillusioned, and life has let you down?  You say your life has been so tough, you've given up hope that things will ever change?  Well I'm sorry, but I don't buy it.


Let me tell you about disappointment.
Let me tell you about life repeatedly slapping you down.  And hoping anyway.

Suppose the one thing you want in life is to have a child.  You pray for a child, finally conceive and carry the child for 7 months and go through 15 hours of labor,  but ultimately just get to hold that stillborn baby for five groggy minutes and have a funeral in an ice storm.  You listen to everyone say it will be okay, wasn't meant to be, yadda yadda, try again. Six months later, you successfully conceive again.  But another month goes by and-- oops, misplaced embryo, this one's dying too.  No wait, its not dying fast enough, and you could die from a rupture, let's start chemo to kill it faster. So your hair falls out. Lovely. 

No problem, you'll just try again. A year goes by. Then two.  Maybe good things don't happen to those who wait-- maybe you have to make them happen.  So you head over to the fertility clinic, shots every day, feel like a pin cushion, procedures and blood tests, rinse/repeat, trying to hope each month, but fearing more disappointment.  Finally at last good news.. you're having twins!  Or you were, but sorry, you lost one.  And two months later, the other.  Folks, that's when you feel like giving up.  That's when you start to lose all faith that there is any good out there. But something inside says no, give it one more try.  Hope a little longer.  So you do it all again.. like a zombie going thru the motions... more shots, more pain.  Holding on to that shred of hope.  Four years of this insanity.  Four years of walking by an empty nursery.  Every. Day.

Now they say it worked?  Okay.  You dare to hope a little more.  Wait for the bad news. No bad news comes. Except that now you have to live in a hospital for a month because you have some rare super-sickness.  But death is not coming for this one, and you feel better, and its a boy, and so you start to hope more, until.. You get a new kind of sick.  And sicker.  And he stops growing.  And you're back in that same hospital at seven months along again, hoping against hope that you don't end up with another tiny coffin.  Then one by one, your organs start shutting down--your vision goes next.  This time they say you're circling the drain.  One or both of you is not going to make it.  But in the blackness, somehow you choose to hope and believe a miracle is still possible.

So they take the baby by c-section, and you go into seizures on the operating table.  Usually such seizures are followed shortly by coma and death.  But not this time.  No, this is the hope finish line.  This is where the tide turns--where patience and prayer finally pay off, and all that blind faith is rewarded at last.  A few weeks later there you are, walking out of the hospital, healthy, with a healthy baby boy and a second chance at life.

Yes, life is tough-- It's brutal!  You've got to be tougher.  I refuse to believe any situation is ever hopeless.  There is just no such thing, only people who give up.  Yes, good things do come in time, but a lot of pain comes too.  And sometimes the wait is longer than you ever planned.  In the meantime you have to do your best and believe that the good in this world will always be stronger than the bad.  That the pain will only make you stronger, more human, so someday you can comfort and strengthen someone else.  And when good things do come, they're better than you ever imagined.

Maybe just to confirm that the lesson was over, that I'd passed that test, God threw in a little extra surprise for me a few years later. Easy as pie.  No more roller coasters, no super-sickness.  Just sweet rewards.  I think the bottom line is that sometimes fate completely shifts when you least expect it.  Listen.  Our Creator loves to reward his faithful ones.  He loves to reward those who choose to hope when they have absolutely no reason to, who tap into HIS strength when they feel like crumbling.  In His time, with His strength, you will see His rewards. I promise. 

People ask me all the time why I'm so optimistic. Simple answer?  Because I have walked in dark places and learned to look for light.  And when there was none, I've learned to feel the walls-- and walk on in the dark.  If I can hope, anyone can.


"Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4)

"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that has been promised to him." (James 1:5-7, 9, 12)

 "And we boast in this hope we have. But we also boast in our sufferings, because we know that it produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character produces hope. And hope does NOT disappoint."   (Romans 5:2-5)