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This work by Tim Bass is displayed with permission from the author. |
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Author: Tim Bass
Performed By: Chris Gregory |
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Living Hope By Tim Bass Lights up on Chris. CHRIS I just wanted to take a minute and talk to you about something. It’s a word. Just a word. It’s a small word. Four letters. Two vowels and 2 consonants. The word is hope. Hope. H. O. P. E. Hope. Such a simple little word. What is hope? A feeling? A feeling that some promise or some desire will be fulfilled? Something we tend to center our expectations around? Being…optimistic? A desire that something will happen? Is this hope? Yes. This is hope. Hope is all of these things and more. The bible tells us that hope is one of the three theological virtues, along with faith and love. So much power in one little word. So what happens when you lose that? When you lose hope? All the desires and promises and expectations are gone. That optimism vanishes. When we lose hope do we also lose faith? And love? I know what it is like to lose hope. To have it in you and around you. To have it lifting you up and walking next to you every day. And then…it’s gone. For some it’s gradual. Like growing old. For others it happens in the blink of an eye. Also like growing old. For me? In the blink of an eye. The details aren’t important here. Now. Just know that one moment I was alive and filled with hope and all it entails. And then…in a fraction of a second…I was empty. And it’s like being dead. Only worse. Because you’re walking around in this skin and you see the same things as before. You hear the same voices. You see the same faces. But something’s missing. There’s no…color. Everything is gray. And cold. And hard. I lived a life of hopelessness for far too many years. Not wanting to get up in the morning but also not wanting to go to sleep at night. And always wishing for hope. Think about that. I was wishing for hope. Have you ever been there? You don’t wish for a better job or a home or a new car…or a family. You don’t wish to have back what you lost. You just want hope. Because with hope, there is possibility. I finally found that hope. And for me I found it in the strangest way. For me. A very wise person told me that to have hope I must live hope. I must live it every day. Not think about hope. Or know it’s there. But to actually live it. And so that is what I did. That is what I do. I live hope. And how do I do that? Ah. It’s so simple. Like being in a constant state of prayer, you just do it. You just live it. As Christ did. As Christ was. As Christ is. As we are meant to do and to be. Living Hope.
Lights slow fade. |