Hope

We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.
In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust His holy name.
May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.

Psalms 33: 20-22

So much of America is out of hope.

Hope for financial security. Hope for a job. Hope for saving their home. Hope for their family. Hope for peace. Hope.

The financial state of our nation has robbed so many of hope. Placed so many in a cloak of depression and hopelessness.

I run into so many different families and the story is often the same. Someone in the home has been laid off. They don't know how they are going to pay their high utility bills, they are either falling behind or are behind on their rent or house payment. I have found myself in Walmart, engaged in conversation with someone over the most recent financial tragedy to strike them or someone they care about, and have watched as tears roll down their faces or felt them roll down my own. In Walmart, the necessity to shield your tears from the cheerful Walmart Greeter. What is becoming of us?!

What brings me the most saddness, beyond the frustration and despair of their situation, is the loss of hope I am seeing.

We are breeding an environment where there is little to no hope.

When someone is in an environment long enough where there is only difficult circumstances, they begin to be unable to comprehend anything other than that. If someone is constantly being dumped upon, what enables them to be able to see beyond that? How can they believe that God is going to answer their dreams. How can they dare to dream? They are so busy surviving the moment, how are they to have the energy or the audacity to reach for hope?

Hope is something you have the opportunity to provide. You have the opportunity to provide it to someone in a physical, mental, or spiritual sense, and in doing so, you are giving someone hope for a better life. Let those around you know that you love them, God loves them, and it's okay to hope and dream of a life beyond what they are experiencing at the moment. Tell them it is necessary to have hope. Let it start with you. If you are not telling them......who is?

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

I have heard about something that is very exciting to me, because I hear the word HOPE in correlation to finances in America. A conversation about "what's happening in our economy, how we got here, and where we're going". Something I am excited to be a part of and to share with you in my attempt to bring some Hope to your life and to others you may choose to share this with.

Mark your calendars for this nationwide, live event April 23, 8:00 PM ET. Visit Town Hall for Hope or click on the above button and sign up to host an event or to find where one is being hosted near you.

I will be attending at a church here in New Richmond and look forward to sharing this community of hope with all of you.