by Kylie
I’ve struggled a lot with what to write for this post. Hope is a hard concept to grasp. And, well… I have chronic pain, accompanied by mood swings and the natural hormonal imbalances that a teenager goes through. So it’s hard for me to write about hope, when most days, I don’t “feel” it.
But then I realized, hope isn’t about feelings. It’s a knowing. Hope is knowing that everything is going to be okay.
I don’t know what tomorrow brings. For all I know, I could feel terrible and be in tons of pain. But I know something that the world doesn’t.
My Jesus has been to tomorrow before I even get there. Time is irrelevant to Him. And He has a plan for my life.
I was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, last year. I was angry with God. Why would he allow me such pain, such suffering? Why?
It wasn’t until I got on my knees that he gave me this verse.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” -Jeremiah 29:11-14
I’d heard this verse so many times before. But suddenly it got new meaning. New life.
And that gave me new meaning and new life as well.
I once heard a quote that said, “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
I think that’s what hope’s about as well.
Hope is not about what I feel. It’s about knowing that things will improve. It’s knowing that my God is God over the storm.
He’s God in your life and mine. And to me, that gives me hope.
“I don’t need a telescope to see that there’s hope, and that makes me feel brave.”
