Anchor of Hope: Powerful Force Now

Excerpts from “The Right Fight: How to Live a Loving Life” by John Kennedy Vaughan

“Hope is choosing to believe the truth that no matter what, if we persevere in love, then God will go with us and see us through.

“Hope is believing that with God all things are possible. We must keep the fires of hope alive in our lives! Keeping hope alive is not about convincing ourselves we will win or survive. Hope is not believing in ourselves or convincing ourselves we can get what we want. If our hope is in ourselves, we are destined to lose it.

“One thing that has helped me most with keeping hope alive in my own life is coming to realize that I have no idea what God may do next. Knowing I could be one step, one moment, one break, or one decision from everything changing helps me keep hope alive.

“Hope is never dead just because we lose it sometimes. Hope is never further away than the tips of our fingers. It is lost only when we refuse to love again no matter what. I almost lost hope once. I had spent fifteen years chasing a dream. I had given everything I had and found it wasn’t enough. I knew I wasn’t enough, even though I tried to trust and act on God’s Word no matter what.

“I had lost my hope many times and seen Tammie help me restore it. I had quit and tried again and quit again and tried again until it was embarrassing. I had tricked myself into believing I was the best and no one could beat me, only to perform terribly when it mattered most and be totally overcome with fear when I pretended to be fearless. I had been through it all dozens of times, and I had trained with insane, unbalanced intensity and consistency. I had done any and everything I could possibly do, including training with the world’s best coaches, yet fewer than five minutes before my dream was going to come true, I lost my hope.

“I had taken literally thousands of jumps as a skier. I had spent months in the hospital and endured multiple surgeries, all for my dream of winning a national championship, but one jump before my dream would come true, I lost my hope. I lost my hope because, for a moment, I put my trust in myself, and I was insufficient. I looked at my circumstances and saw I had damaged equipment. I knew I had only one jump left. I knew I would have to jump farther than I ever had in my life. I knew I had just crashed and lost all my concentration attempting to repair my equipment in the two minutes allowed; I was not able to do so. The one thing I knew everything about was ski jumping, and I knew it was not possible to do what I needed to do to win in the circumstances, so I made the only rational decision I could: I chose to be thankful for second place.

“Then I saw the scripture Tammie had written on my ski handle: ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ I remembered I had told God that whether I won or not, I would do the best I could for Him. After a fifteen-year journey, I decided fewer than sixty seconds before it was too late that I would finish for God and trust the scripture Tammie had reminded me of so many times and had written on my equipment.

“My hope was not that I could win but that I could finish strong with and for God. Sixty seconds later, as I was falling from the sky at a distance from the ramp I had never sailed before, I was overwhelmed with excitement and joy and disbelief. I could not believe what had really just happened. I could not believe that I had been so wrong. I was so grateful for having finished strong even when I knew it wasn’t possible.

“That day taught me that to have hope in myself or lose hope through trust in myself is the most foolish thing I can do. We never know when God is about to move, when love is about to break through, when everything is about to change if we keep hope alive. Hope is an anchor for our souls!”

Hope in Christ is a certain antidote for the COVD-19 and all the death and destruction it is causing throughout the world.

We must each do what we can to protect ourselves and others from this virus. But we know that our true hope does not lie in what we can do, what our leaders can do, what our doctors can do—although all that is critical to coming out of this on our feet.

Our true hope is born from our faith in Christ, regardless of circumstances. Regardless of the threats to our health, our livelihoods, our economy – we are always hopeful for the future.

Hope energizes us, motivates us to reach out to help others, gives us confidence in our well-being and connects us to the promises of a faithful, merciful, loving God.

Join me now in this hope.

Laus Deo,

Kenny