“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”~ Albert Einstein
Red, (narrating):”I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” ~ Final lines from The Shawshank Redemption, based upon Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
“Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” ~ George Iles
“Hope is the thing with feathers,
that perches in the soul,
and sings the tune without words,
and never stops at all.”
~ Emily Dickinson
“But even now there is hope left. I will not give you counsel, saying do this, or do that. For not in doing or contriving, nor in choosing between this course and another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is, and in part also what shall be. But this I will say to you: your Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the Company is true.” ~ Galadriel: The Mirror of Galadriel, Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
Hope is my middle name.
That’s not a superlative metaphorical description of a sunny disposition, an aggressively positive personality or an exaggeration. Hope really is my middle name. It was never used much, except for by my mother and always as a pre-emptive alarm system…when I heard “Jessica Hope…” at the beginning of any sentence, I knew I better get there fast ‘cause I was in trouble or something was very important.
I always knew it was big stuff when “Hope” got involved. When Dave and I became engaged, I started looking at my name and understood that the choices I wanted to make were going to alter the way I used my name. My initials JHS were about to undergo a voluntary transformation and I spent thoughtful time just doodling my name in its many forms. Eventually, I chose to use my middle initial as from my maiden name, and created a symbol for my initials which was unique and expressive. It was working together very well until the love of my life said one thing, quite lightly and quasi-sarcastically, that stuck firm:
“If this is what you are going to do, that would make you ‘Hope-less.’”
Like the bell chiming for Rocky Balboa during his deepest point of inspiration and determination, this perspective caught me, inspired me to defend the place for hope in my life. “I will never be hopeless,” I told myself, “There will always be hope” I reminded myself with my own level of determination. And I swear there was a bell chiming in the corner as I was fixed within this cerebral contract with myself.
Hope is my middle name.
God’s presence in my life is this hope. It is a deeply aggressive hope, blood-thumping, life changing, transformational hope. Hope that looks the darkness square without wavering or cowering. Hope that brings its own first-aid kit patching up the wounds from spurious attack. Hope with muscle-bound purpose insisting ferociously “All is not lost, God is in control.” Hope that is fierce and roaring, filled with God’s power, facing impossible circumstances with divine solutions.
I have needed to draw from that well of aggressive hope more during these past 10 weeks than ever before. Several fronts within our lives collided together to create a “Perfect Storm” that decimated everything in its path. To write them all down would sound like I was exaggerating with explosive expertise. The circumstances have all been relentless, lined with live ammunition launched at us, the living, breathing, vulnerable targets.
And through this all, God has provided hope: defended hope, fortified hope, built structures with hope. God has brought hope.
Hope is my middle name.
Red, (narrating):”I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” ~ Final lines from The Shawshank Redemption, based upon Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
“Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” ~ George Iles
“Hope is the thing with feathers,
that perches in the soul,
and sings the tune without words,
and never stops at all.”
~ Emily Dickinson
“But even now there is hope left. I will not give you counsel, saying do this, or do that. For not in doing or contriving, nor in choosing between this course and another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is, and in part also what shall be. But this I will say to you: your Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the Company is true.” ~ Galadriel: The Mirror of Galadriel, Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
Hope is my middle name.That’s not a superlative metaphorical description of a sunny disposition, an aggressively positive personality or an exaggeration. Hope really is my middle name. It was never used much, except for by my mother and always as a pre-emptive alarm system…when I heard “Jessica Hope…” at the beginning of any sentence, I knew I better get there fast ‘cause I was in trouble or something was very important.
I always knew it was big stuff when “Hope” got involved. When Dave and I became engaged, I started looking at my name and understood that the choices I wanted to make were going to alter the way I used my name. My initials JHS were about to undergo a voluntary transformation and I spent thoughtful time just doodling my name in its many forms. Eventually, I chose to use my middle initial as from my maiden name, and created a symbol for my initials which was unique and expressive. It was working together very well until the love of my life said one thing, quite lightly and quasi-sarcastically, that stuck firm:
“If this is what you are going to do, that would make you ‘Hope-less.’”
Like the bell chiming for Rocky Balboa during his deepest point of inspiration and determination, this perspective caught me, inspired me to defend the place for hope in my life. “I will never be hopeless,” I told myself, “There will always be hope” I reminded myself with my own level of determination. And I swear there was a bell chiming in the corner as I was fixed within this cerebral contract with myself.
Hope is my middle name.
God’s presence in my life is this hope. It is a deeply aggressive hope, blood-thumping, life changing, transformational hope. Hope that looks the darkness square without wavering or cowering. Hope that brings its own first-aid kit patching up the wounds from spurious attack. Hope with muscle-bound purpose insisting ferociously “All is not lost, God is in control.” Hope that is fierce and roaring, filled with God’s power, facing impossible circumstances with divine solutions.
I have needed to draw from that well of aggressive hope more during these past 10 weeks than ever before. Several fronts within our lives collided together to create a “Perfect Storm” that decimated everything in its path. To write them all down would sound like I was exaggerating with explosive expertise. The circumstances have all been relentless, lined with live ammunition launched at us, the living, breathing, vulnerable targets.
And through this all, God has provided hope: defended hope, fortified hope, built structures with hope. God has brought hope.
Hope is my middle name.
"Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought us, by faith, into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. We rejoice, then, in the hope we have of sharing God's glory! And we also rejoice in troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.” Romans 5:1-5 TEB
