Call it a Comeback

"Lord, there are people who have curled up and died in a corner for no reason other than they lost hope.  When there is no hope, there is no life." - Thomas G. Pettepiece

You can see it on sidelines.  You can see it in hallways.  You can see it in the face of those who have been beat down.  Eyes are blank, staring into nowhere.  Shoulders sagging, as if buried under an intense weight.  I've watched coaches pace sidelines, clapping their hands, imploring their athletes to not roll over, to not quit, to not give up, to not abandon hope.  There are teachers who are looking for any kind of sign of life in their students that points towards hope.  We've all seen it, at one time or another...the signs of those without hope.

Hope, like love, is so powerful.  It can stand in the face of immense adversity and cause you to still believe; to hold on for dear life, believing that no matter the chants that come from the stands...

it.

is.

not.

all.

over.

There is a reason we all love a comeback.  We love to see a team that didn't quit.  We love to see athletes who chose to believe in hope, who in the face of a loss chose to rally together and over come the future that seemed inevitable to write a new story.  Their belief, their hope allowed them to be over-comers.  In sports, these teams often hold onto each other.  They trust each other, they cling to one another, teammates and coaches, all staring each other in the eye and saying.  We. Can. Do. This!!  And when they do...they do.

As I read Paul's letter to the Ephesians when he writes:

...that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

I find myself filled with hope.  We don't have the capacity to fully understand what we are capable, let alone what the Creator of all things is capable of.  That who I am becoming has not been fully revealed.  That how God is working in the life of my kids hasn't been fully comprehended.  That the place the athletes and coaches I get to do life with have not reached their final destination because God is just that big! 

Not only am I filled with hope, I am challenged to be an agent of that hope.  To do whatever it takes
for hope to become a cultural norm, not a moment that bursts forth only to be swallowed up by 'reality'.  It is time to paint a new reality, one in which hope is the norm, where setback is nothing more than an opportunity to see just what God can do.  We must allow our imaginations to run wild, to dream of a preferred future and believe in the One who can get us there.

Lord, we do not hope in ourselves, our technology, our governments, our laws, our tenacity, our courage, or our will, though these things are all necessary to conquer...We hope in you.  Amen - T.G.P.