Wow, Now That’s Hope!

The tool that keeps mankind going, that helps us achieve our dreams, to experience the richness of our desires?  Hope!  Hope goes a long way if we’ll allow it.  When we let go of hope and it’s nowhere to be found, we can find ourselves down for the count.

When you’re in the ruts about being single, hope will give you your whistle back!  When you’re discouraged with your relationship, hope will show you where there’s still gladness to be had.  Just when you think you’re marriage can’t last another day, hope will sing that tomorrow is a new day with new miracles awaiting!

Hope, that’s just what I received the other night, that is until I had the air knocked out of me by betrayal, however I’ll share more about that tomorrow.  My family and I have been holding on to hope since October 2010 as we are still expecting that my baby sister will recover from a tragic car accident involving a drunk driver.  We hope that every day will be the day that she’ll either walk, talk, eat or all the above!  However with our journey being a long one, I must admit there have been many times where I questioned if I still had my hope.

The past few months my hope had been slowly draining, however within the recent weeks I found myself getting my joy, my verve for life and my hope back.  But this weekend I got slapped with a massive stick of hope.  My sister has been in and out of rehab and with her first admittance into the rehabilitation center, she was receiving care at the same facility as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  As I would visit my sister, I would see the Congresswoman passing in the halls and was silently amazed at this woman’s courage, her bravery to fight for her recovery.

The rehab that they receive is very grueling and takes so much fight, so to see someone else endure through what I witnessed from my own sisters rehabilitation, I was amazed.  However I received the ultimate shock when the other evening I witnessed right before my eyes Congresswoman Giffords walk into a room, smiling, talking and beaming.  As I was with a girlfriend my eyes began to well up with tears.  I remembered seeing her in her wheelchair, so to see her walking and engaging in conversation, needless to say it took my breath away.  She was a walking miracle right before my eyes.

I eventually regained my composure and went to share with her how I remembered seeing her and telling her about my sisters own story.  That moment shifted things for me.  We can talk about miracles, we can pray for miracles, but when you witness one right before your eyes, it changes everything.  Hope had arrived on the scene that night and I was encouraged on behalf of my sister.  Hope in its very essence reminded me that miracles still do happen, to not give up and to hang on.

If you’re needing hope in your life whether relationally or in general, let this courageous woman’s journey inspire you that miracles still do happen, even in our day and age.  Congresswoman Giffords and her husband Astronaut Mark Kelly were gracious enough to take a picture with me.  I showed my sister the picture today and reminded her that we’re believing for her miracle too as I sang to her “When You Believe”.  Let me encourage you to allow Hope in and to start believing again!