“Maybe we should take a break from having hope.” This was what one man said to his wife after they had another failed attempt at getting her effective help for her concussion symptoms.
It broke my heart to hear that they had come to that point in the past. Happily, my heart was also comforted by the knowledge that they were currently getting quality care, answers, and legitimately effective help from the clinic where I work.
But their experience is not unique.
The search for answers, whether to pressing medical concerns or painful spiritual questions or challenging life issues, can be tough and feel like a long journey. It may be tempting to take a break from hope — to believe that pausing on hope would be a safer-for-the-heart route to take.
But I submit that it is not. Hope is the thing that keeps us moving forward. It is what prompts even the smallest actions we take. And the only way to find answers is to hope that there are answers to be found and to act on that hope.
These may seem like cliches, but I believe their messages are true and worth considering seriously:
It will all work out in the end, and if it hasn’t worked out yet, it’s not the end.
“I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work” —Thomas Edison
God answers questions in 3 ways — “Yes,” “Not now,” or “I have something better in mind for you.”
Pressing on when it seems like all hope is lost or that we would be better off taking a break from hope, is the exact thing that will lead us to the peace we seek. The answers may not be what we were wanting them to be, but they are worth finding and will only be found by our holding onto hope.
Keep on hoping, my friends.
Bethany