Things are happening everywhere I look. People are responding or positioning themselves to be moved to the side, previously lethargic projects are now on the move, and I can feel tangible amounts of hope. It is as if the naysayer has been pushed into the proper place where nobody can hear his feeble cries of resistance. We have a long way to go but I can finally see hope and light.
What made the difference? Are there lessons that apply to life itself? Can you and I take hope?
The difference came from and through people. We finally took the counsel to heart. “Give yourselves to disciplined instruction; open your ears to tested knowledge.” (Proverbs 23.12)
It wasn’t that we played things out on the latest whim or fashion. We used tested and validated knowledge, leveraged it with hard work, and followed disciplined instruction. The combination has allowed us to work as a team, understand things greater than ourselves, and pursue goals that would otherwise be unachievable.
There were plenty of people who said it could not be done; in fact they are still there, just a lot more quiet. The arguments of yesterday have begun to fade as the proof emerges through testing and use of the new capabilities. The light of hope is a flicker in many of their eyes. Momentum is building in short, tangible bursts. Now the challenge comes in bringing things all together.
The rarest commodity in life is hope – especially hope that is real, viable, and livable. Bad things are all around us, life is fleeting and fragile, and the way forward is muddy. Every word of instruction seems to come with a caveat. Each bit of advice tagged with conditions. Steps forward quickly end in a boxed canyon. Hope, real hope, seems to be a ghost.
I am here to testify that hope is here and available to all who will look with fresh eyes and an open mind. God offers each unconditional acceptance just the way they are. God offers real, complete, and awesome living. God offers hope.
