Hope and what it means during a crisis

What role does “hope” play in a person’s life and what effect does it have in one’s outlook on life? The dictionary defines hope as, “the belief in a positive outcome”.  However, I am talking about a hope that gives one power in knowing that there exists meaning to the crisis that they might currently be in. Is there such a thing? Not the abstract, “I hope things get better.”  Or, “I hope that you get that job.”  That type of hope is merely wishful thinking, feel good words at best, with virtually no power behind it other than the momentary.

One of my most challenging crises was when my 16 year old daughter disappeared, seemingly snatched from her bed in the middle of the night.  Her toothbrush laid by the sink and nothing appeared missing. Her sister said they had watched a movie until 10:30 and both had gone to bed with nothing seemingly amiss.  It was six am and within an hour we had established that her boyfriend had come over and picked her up sometime between midnight and six am.  He did not have a driver’s license and had taken his mother’s car. We thought they would come home any minute…that they lost track of time doing a crazy thing. However, after two hours I called the police.  They informed me that it was not against the law for sixteen year olds to run away in the state of California. All we could do is report them missing. The boy’s mother had told him the day before that he could only see my daughter one day a week, supervised.  He had started attending Saddleback Community Church with us and they were Mormon.  Apparently, he had panicked over the new restriction and teen love had him gripped.  We had just attended his Eagle Scout ceremony several nights prior so I was shocked that he would even consider such a drastic measure to be with her. Even more shocked that my daughter would do such a thing. Relationships in the household were good and there were no signs indicating such erratic behavior.

The following day we hired a private detective. It was two weeks of raw emotions until they were found, alive and well in San Francisco, living in the car with the license plates removed.  Both had gone to Social Security to obtain their SS number so they could work.  Both had jobs.  Talk about industrious! But, both were ready to come home.

 How did I manage to get through those two weeks without losing my mind? How was I able to continue going to work each day and function?

 I have been blessed to have grasped a different type of hope and have used the power of it to advance me forward throughout my life.  What type of hope is that, you ask?  A spiritual hope…one that is linked to the power of Jesus Christ. It is not an empty hope. It is a hope that is not based on self, or things, or illusion.  It is a hope that fills me with unexplainable comfort and peace at times when I should be feeling the crisis around me. Does possessing this type of hope mean that I am in denial, in lala land, ignoring the events?  Not hardly.  It just means that I know that there is a reason why I am currently in the mist of the crisis and that the outcome can serve a purpose that is greater than me.  Sometimes, I don’t understand the meaning of it all until a much later date; and with some crises I am still not certain why I had to go through the event.  However, that does not lessen my belief and the power that this “hope” through Jesus Christ holds.

This hope takes the pressure off of trying to control everything.  It allows me to place my life in God’s hands and to look hard at my life and learn from it.  Some of the negative things that happen are to grow my character because I know that I am an unfinished woman that struggles to be a better person.

I kept a journal during that time and look back at the prayers that I wrote.  Prayers that asked the Lord to send angels to protect them, prayers to keep them under God’s wings of safety, prayers to bring them home safely. God gave me a wonderful level of peace that I would not be expected to feel.  I KNEW that the kids were in His care and that He would bring them home safely. And He did just that!  All to His praise and glory.

  Without this type of Hope, I do see why many in this world live stressed and unproductive lives. My prayer is that others unfamiliar with this type of Hope that can only be found through knowing Jesus Christ will at least seek Him out and get to know Him.  He is my life compass and without a compass life has no direction.  As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice when she hit the fork in the road and asked which road to take because she didn’t know where she was going, “Either road will take you there.” No compass, no direction, no peace. Know God and get a life direction that will fill you with Hope.