Hope. A longing for and a looking toward something beyond every obstacle there may be against it. A light in the face of darkness. A relentless necessity without which despair would settle in irrevocably.

We need hope. There is nothing to live for without it. Good days would be only that, if even that, and bad days would be so black we might never overcome them without hope to help us find the light again.

Hope gives us a reason to press on. It whispers of change, of better tomorrows. It fuels the strength that lifts weary feet again and again, even through much pain and difficulty. Hope is beautiful, even when it beats helplessly against its obstacle as a bird against the glass. Hope is strong, even when its wings are shredded and night falls before it. Hope is enduring. It is relentless.

Always it is beckoning us forward.

But what of hope that is broken? What of hope that seems futile? Why continue hoping when the very hope itself only breaks you time and again as life continues marching from bad to worse?

What about when fear becomes stronger than hope, when doubt darkens its glow? What then? When there is no strength, no courage left, what then?

There is still hope. Perhaps in the moment we have no room for it in our bleeding hearts, but that is why we are not alone in this world. There are others around us, and though our strength is gone, theirs is not.

In the light of their hope for us, perhaps we will again find a hope of our own.

God didn’t give us friends only to have good times with. He gave us friends to remind us of His love for us, to help us stand back up when we fall, to hold out His hope to us when we have lost our own.

“Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.” (taken from Allegiant by Veronica Roth)

Perhaps your hope is weak. Perhaps it is dead. Perhaps it simply disappeared somewhere along the dark path you are treading.

You are not without hope. Somewhere there is someone hoping for you.

So keep walking. And if you are one of those friends hoping for someone who has lost their hope, keep hoping.

One of God’s sweetest promises is this. . . “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

So hope on, and know that you are loved and that a brighter tomorrow is coming.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine's glow, its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.

~ George Matheson

A beautiful picture of hope. . .

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for awhile. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.” (taken from The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien)