LTJ: The Power of Hope

I just returned from the orthopedic surgeon who informed me
I have a 50 to 80 percent chance of my shoulder healing without surgery.  I sat in the car and cried with relief before
leaving the parking lot.  Four months of
pain, an erroneous report on my MRI and a previous shoulder surgery had me
prepared for the worst.  Yes, I will have
to take anti-inflammatory meds.  Yes, I
will do weeks or months of strenuous physical therapy, but I have hope that I
will get well without putting a tenth notch on my surgical history.

Hope is a powerful emotion.  I’ve seen it over and over again. When my
oldest son and his wife were trying to conceive, the doctor ran a gamut of
tests.  No medical reason why they had
not gotten pregnant during their years of trying.  They were encouraged.  No, they didn’t get pregnant immediately but
they had hope and one day, when no one was expecting a miracle, the test proved
positive.  Our now five-year-old
granddaughter was already snuggling into her mother’s womb.  What an exciting moment!

I have a friend who just completed several weeks of
chemotherapy and heard her doctor say, “There is no sign of cancer.”  She’s weak and she’s tired, but hallelujah,
she has hope!  Another friend’s cardiac
condition improved instead of worsened as doctor’s had predicted.  Hope! 
My 93-year-old mother is planning a trip to Montana next year. She
doesn’t know how her health will be, but she has hope that she will make the
trip.

My son, Jay is counting the days until Disney on Ice comes
to the fairgrounds.  We have had tickets
for several weeks and hope this show will be one of the best.  Jay goes even further—he expects it to be the best. 
Hope is so important.  There are
people around us hoping to get a job, to buy a house, go on vacation, have
grandchildren, write a book, retire from work, get married, become parents or
just go out to dinner.  Hope keeps our
spirits alive.  When the weather is hot
and dry, we hope for rain. When the snow piles up to a dozen inches, we hope
for sunshine.  When we move to a new
community we hope to find a friend.

The dictionary says hope is a feeling that something
desirable is likely to happen.  We are
not designed to live without hope.  There
are studies which show that children who were seldom touched or held in
orphanages did not develop well physically or emotionally.  The heart and brain do not know how to
respond to a lack of love and hope. 
Depressed individuals take medication to up the serotonin levels in
their brain in order to give them hope and healing.

Each day, I live with the hope that God will miraculously
heal my youngest son of heart disease. 
The total healing has never come, but God has divinely granted a daily
dose of miracles so that Jay has celebrated 34 birthdays instead of the few
that doctors anticipated when he was born. 
A favorite scripture from the Bible states: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord… “plans to
give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)  Today, I pray you will find hope for whatever
is troubling your mind, hurting your heart or distressing your body and
soul.

Today is a great day for hope.  Grab it with all your might!