Holy Hope

This is it — the year you earn that starting spot. You’ve spent all offseason sweating hard during longer workouts and watching your nutrition carefully. You put in the time and effort to step into the open spot that’s waiting just for you. Come tryouts, you’re flying across the field, making plays you never would have just one year ago.

When starters are announced at practice the day before the first game, your name is not mentioned. In the span of a few seconds, you see the months of preparation crash down around your feet. Disappointment becomes a bitterness that takes root deep inside you.

How do we pull our hearts up and keep concentrating on giving our all for the team when broken hope weighs us down? We lift our eyes to the One who holds our delicate dreams in His steady hands — the One who has seen the hours of work and sweat … and our broken dreams. If we trust in His purpose and character, there is an anchored assurance that He won’t leave us where we are.

Though we are let down by worldly circumstances, God never disappoints. He gives us a holy hope that does not diminish.