Everything Rides on Hope Now

Have you ever been at a place in your life where you think you just can’t handle one more thing? Decisions to be made are everywhere. Maybe you have had to discipline your child over something that you felt was ridiculous or maybe you had to decide to stay at your current job or move on to a new one. How about making the decision to put your beloved family pet down or making a financial decision for your family. Do you ever feel like you are just standing in one place juggling a bunch of balls? I do!

In one ball I have Kristina. She will be 16 in 9 short days. For those who have had a child turn 16 you know where I’m coming from. For those of you who haven’t experienced that yet, I can’t explain it. There are no words to even begin to describe it. In another ball I have Gabe. A pre-teen. He is trying to figure out where he fits in the pecking order of Jr. High School. What clothes does he like to wear? What type of friends will he have? In yet another ball I have Shane. He works in the auto manufacturing industry and for anyone who lives in the world today...enough said. And naturally in another ball I have my job. I work in the legal field for a defense law firm and guess who one of our biggest clients is? Yep, you guessed it, one of the biggest auto manufacturers in the world. Along with all of this I have the normal balls that I juggle on a daily basis just as everyone else.

My heart has been heavy these past few days and today was no different when I woke up. I got dressed, got the kids out of the house and headed out the door to work. I often pray on my way to work or some days I will turn on the local Christian radio station and worship the Lord in song. Today, I couldn’t seem to muster the strength to pray. I turned the radio on to the local Christian station and began to drive to work in somewhat of a fog. Within just a few minutes the DJ introduced a song by Addison Road called "Hope Now." As the song began to play wave after wave seemed to wash over me. A wave a hope, a wave of faith, a wave of strength, a wave of patience, a wave of peace, a wave of love. By the time the chorus started to play I had tears streaming down my face. "Everything rides on hope now, Everything rides on faith somehow, When the world has broken me down, Your love sets me free."

In Matthew 6:34 he tells us "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Do you know why we shouldn’t worry about tomorrow? Because HIS LOVE SETS US FREE! As the song finished I dried my tears, looked towards heaven and just smiled. I didn't have to say anything...he knew my heart. Isn't it amazing how he can speak to us in something as simple as a song? I have often heard people say, "I've never heard God speak to me." I want to take that person and shake them because has God not provided us with eyes to see him, ears to hear the wind or hear a song, sensation in our hands to feel pain as we dry a child's tears. Oh, he speaks to us...the thing is....do we listen?