Hope

"We have enough people who 'tell it like it is.' Now we could use a few who tell it like it can be." I thought of that quote by Robert Orben yesterday morning as we were studying 1 Peter 3:15, "Always be ready to give an explanation for the hope in you when people ask about it." Teacher Tom warned us that if we're always glumly predicting disaster, pointing out the flaws in society and the hopelessness of our situation, there's slim chance anyone watching will ask us about "the hope in us." Maybe it makes us look more intelligent when we can discern what's wrong, and maybe there's even a time for that. But I think that telling the whole truth requires a conversation laced with hope. Not blind hope, but sure hope that springs from knowing God--His power, His promises, and His record of redemption. Some say you're born either an optimist or a pessimist. Maybe. But could a pessimist grow in hope as she grows in knowing God?

Six good friends joined us for supper and conversation last evening. Lovely. In the afternoon Chuck and I walked the trails of the Daniel B. Stowe Botanical Garden. Despite the killing freeze of the previous weekend, panoramas of beauty remain among the fountains and green leafy backdrops.

Tomorrow I'll get blood drawn for a CA 125 test, and we'll probably have results Wednesday morning. Sure, I speculate. What if the cancer numbers quit dropping, or start rising? I hope they don't. But I have a hope bigger than that, a sure hope, that whatever the test reveals, God is absolutely in control, totally good, and fully reliable.

Robert Alden said, "There is not enough darkness in the world to put out the light of even one small candle." I love to visualize all our flames of hope lighting the way for people who need light. So be ready to explain it!

In sure hope,
Carol