Day Three

by Allison Gaillard

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” -Romans 12:12

“Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it you’ll never make it through the night.” -Princess Leia

If you know anything about the Gaillard family you know we are Star Wars junkies. Our son’s first words were, in fact, “Star Wars.” If you know nothing about Star Wars, know it is a movie based on hope. The dark side hopes it can defeat the republic/rebellion. The Jedi hope they can make the galaxy a better place. Planets hope to live free. Everyone hopes they are on the right side.

Isn’t this the same for us: we hope we are on the right path in our faith journey, we hope our marriage is sacred, we hope we raise our kids right, we hope we are healed from sickness, we hope we are making a difference, we hope for the best.

Thrive & Flourish, the monthly women’s gathering for the Mobile campus, has taught me that in order to really understand the weight of a word, like hope, we must look at its counterpart: hopeless. According to Merriam Webster, hopeless means “having no expectation of good or success: despairing, not susceptible to remedy or cure, incapable of redemption, impossible.” How many times have we looked at impossible situations and thought No good can come from this or What could God possibly be up to? This is impossible.

Time and time again, the Word of God is filled with hope. We serve a God who is in the impossible business, a Heavenly Father who wants to redeem all, and one who should give us all hope.

As a runner, I hope that the training I’ve put in pays off; that I make it to the finish line. Race days show me what I am truly made of, especially when the race gets hard, and I get tired, and I just want to quit. That’s when I have to dig deep, refocus, and trust my training. My body knows what to do. It was trained for this. My mind has to shift to what I can’t do and be reminded this is nothing new. This is what I trained for. And the same is true for our faith journey. There are days where we just want to quit, but we must be reminded that, while the next step might be the hardest, we do not walk alone. What seems like an impossible situation has already been ordained in heaven. When we think we are past the point of redemption, we must be reminded to shift the focus to the Redeemer, and we put our hope in him and his plan. Because we not only hope in Jesus but we recognize that he is hope, the greatest hope.

I will leave you with another Star Wars quote, this one from Jyn Orso: “We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope.” For Christians, our faith is built on hope and that hope is Jesus. We hope for the day that Jesus returns and we dwell with him forever.

PRAYER

Lord, may we rest this Christmas season in the hope we have in you. Help us to shift our focus back to our Redeemer and the hope he offers whenever we feel our situation seems impossible. Thank you that we never walk alone.