Letters & Hope

My senior year of high school I spent a great deal of time writing letters. I wrote them on days of celebration, be it birthdays, holidays, or a 6 month anniversary with my boyfriend. I’ve always had a lot to say. It always came out best in writing.

So the last few weeks of my high school career, I spent time curating letters to people who had helped me reach this point in life: graduation. I wrote to as many people as I could. I couldn’t not do it.

I didn’t grow up in the Church. Going to church by myself as a teenager was a challenge. I was a slightly introverted girl who just wanted Jesus like I thirsted for water. I would drive myself, most times dreading the moments of being alone until someone I knew showed up. It wasn’t until the sounds of worship drowned out the opportunity for small talk did I feel comfortable.

Luckily…no, so blessedly, I found a lot of people. People who cared about me in so many different ways. I realized by the time I was 18 that I could never repay the many for what they had gifted me:  hope. So I wrote. I told these people, God’s people, that He had used them so I could see Him better. They changed my vision of Him forever.

Times are treacherous right now. I don’t want to watch the news. I want to pretend like the world is not as it is, but I cannot be such a fool. I cannot be hopeless. I cannot rain down fear onto the world, or litter it with doubt. A lot of people bet on me when I was young. A big, mighty God bet on me, too. They didn’t have to do that. They didn’t have to give me all the buckets of hope that they did. But they did.

Church. Church! We are not hopeless. This world is downfallen, but if that is news to you, you might have been reading the wrong Bible. Think of the kids in your communities, the teenagers who go to church alone, and pour all the hope and love you have into them. Pour it into each other. God is not limited in this; He has storehouses laden with snow and rain and the sun bows to His command. Just think of all the love and hope He has just waiting to be restored in those who need it. Church! Don’t forget how good God is. Don’t forget how much His people need you.

God’s love for me is like a spigot that has let loose, a flow that cannot be stopped, tampered with, or slowed down. What love! And I can give it away. I have that power. I can let loose on the people I know because He gives so generously to me. It’s what we need. We need to remind ourselves of His hope, His perfect grace. And He bet on me. He knew I could do whatever He called. He bets on me everyday my eyes open as the morning sun shines through.

He’s betting on you to do the needed, the impossible even. Let it flow, friends. Renew hope.