Darkness to Light: Hope as Experience

But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets. I have a hope in God—a hope that they themselves also accept—that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience toward God and all people. ~ Acts 24:14-16

 There is some good in this world and it's worth fighting for. ~ JRR Tolkien

 The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark. ~ Thomas Paine

 The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. ~ Eleanore Roosevelt.

Once you've gotten a taste of the experience of real hope, something breaks open. Even if things again seem hopeless, the memory of the feeling is one that is burned into our core. 

 It gives us a reason to keep on. It gives a new understanding of perseverance. 

 Hope feeds on itself and lights a path forward to reach out for that for which we hope. It shows us how God has already reached out to us and gives us a way to share that hope with others.

 Because hope is at its best when we share it.

 Once we know deeply how God has worked through hope in our own lives, we are able to become the light at the end of that dark tunnel for those who still feel hopeless.

 We've lived it. We know it. We know that at some point it will again not disappoint us.

 We learn how to live fully and then how to help others life fully as well. 

 Once that happens, how can we do anything else but continue to hope?

 Prayer: Let me share hope with those who need it most today, Lord. Amen




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