Frayed and tattered

Faded, shattered

Vacuumed vitality

Stark reality

Sound the alarm, but be not alarmed.

A cry, a sigh, but none to say, "why."

It just is and it is and it is what it is and 

What it will be is what we shall see and there only is one task to be done

And thus, it is this and this it is thus and the scraps of our words

Become seeds of our faith and we never lose hope and we hold on to hope

And we hold it, tattered and frayed, shattered and faded

In the palm of our hand in the depth of our heart.

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Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me … It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!"  Ruth 1:12-13

"What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?  – Job 6:11

Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't raise my hopes'?"  – II Kings 4:28:

 … in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel.  – Ezra 10:2

Without hope, we shrivel up and die. We atrophy from the inside out. We formulate no goals, formulate no strategies, articulate  no objectives, and develop no action plans for our lives. We stop dreaming dreams and seeing visions. Without hope, we cease to seek God and God actually becomes an irrelevant sideline to our lives. Without hope, we die. Hope is illogical. We can think of any number of rational reasons for discrediting hope in our own lives or the lives of others.

Hope is risky. At the worst, we lose time and money; at the least, we lose face. But without hope, we lose everything.

With all of that in mind, there is one solid, indisputable reason for having hope: Jesus Christ. While the “facts” may argue against hope, the Word of God says, “there is still hope.”

Hope is based upon irrefutable truth. It is founded upon ultimate reality and rooted in in dynamic power. If there were no evidence to support hope the still small voice of God’s eternal Spirit would whisper it into our hearts. But there is evidence. Millions of transformed lives through history and alive today attest to it.  Embrace hope and live.

Let us resolve to be people of hope. As we are becoming hope-full about God’s bright future, we will be contagious. The hope that spills from our lives into the lives of other people will infect them for a lifetime and encourage them to rise up and accept the challenge the Lord brings into their lives.

It may not look impressive to the world or to us, but we hold hope in our hands and it is enough.

Hope of the ages,

Breathe hope into my faltering heart.

Rebuild the foundations of faith

Within my troubled soul

That I may bear witness to Your

Constancy and faithfulness

As long as I live.