Hope Rises: Make Your Life, Love, and Leadership SoarSample

Tough Times Reveal What Good Times Conceal  

Fear and uncertainty can ravage the soul. An unexpected downturn in circumstances or crisis can make you feel like life has punched you in the gut, leaving you breathless. 

Whenever we encounter difficulties, it tests the limits of our emotional and spiritual reserves. But that’s not altogether a bad thing. Challenging times force us to lean into spiritual resources in a fresh new way. Hope is just such a resource. 

Hope can inspire you to make good things happen in the midst of bad times. Hope can cause you to soar to new heights in the face of strong headwinds. Hope refreshes the soul and invigorates the spirit. Hope allows you to see God at work in the messiness of life.

How we face life’s challenges will greatly shape our future and define our character. Dark days and difficulties can wreak havoc in our lives if we are not prepared to address tumultuous times appropriately. But if we embrace hope, we can rise above challenging circumstances and build a brighter tomorrow, no matter how bleak today may appear. 

Hope is more than wishful thinking or a Pollyanna attitude that sees the glass as half-full. It goes beyond mere positivity. Hope isn’t just an ethereal concept relegated to poets and dreamers. It’s for doers. Hope is a dynamic motivational strategy tied to inspirational goal-setting. 

Hope is the capacity to envision yourself on the other side of a difficult situation, appropriating the resources necessary to persevere, and crafting a plan to get to a desired destination. Hope is the ability to build a better tomorrow.

Hope changes the way you view your circumstances. It provides an elevated perspective from which you can envision a path to a brighter future. Hope produces joy, which can bolster your patience in the face of affliction. Hope keeps you focused on the divine rather than on the difficulty. Hope allows you to see beyond the finite to the infinite possibilities that become available when your faith is properly placed. 

So, if you are facing tumultuous times, learning to embrace and imbue hope could very well be what you need to anchor your soul in the midst of the storm. 

Remember that ships aren’t sunk by the water around them, no matter how rough they may be. Rather, ships are sunk by the water that gets in them. Keep your soul high and dry with hope.