I’ve been in so many meetings with people trying to solve a seemingly impossible problem and someone inevitably chirps in with …

I understand entirely what they mean but I grimace inside.

When you’re back’s against the wall if ALL you do is hope then it’s not likely that anything will CHANGE.

Hope does two things to me – it makes me admit that I need help beyond myself plus it’s the spark that starts the change.

Hope is the firestarter, it’s the pilot light that just barely keeps burning when there’s no reason to keep on going or keep on believing. Hope is the spark that ignites the signal fire to grab God’s attention.

But that in itself is not enough – hope crashes in on my world and forces me to make a decision – do I give up and back down, or do I choose to keep believing and decide to move, to take action, to cry out to God to meet me – does hope put feet on my faith?

I’ve found myself many times with the odds stacked against me and sometimes even with friends or family telling me I should just give up, shut up shop, and let it all go ….

But the ember of hope, that ‘thing’ that I cannot see, the whispers of God in my spirit that just won’t go away – the hope that remains – is just enough for me to choose to stand on what I believe and take just one more step forward.

That’s the story behind my song “Hope On My Horizon”. When I penned the lines

With my heart racing and my confidence crumbling

I’ll take a chance instead of wondering

I see hope …

I wasn’t referring to four leaf clovers or a rabbit’s foot – I was talking about how hope is a “true north” and points me toward trusting in God and spurs me into taking steps that line up with that trust – even though I have no guarantee that anything will change. Those steps of hope are living evidence that I WILL trust that God can do something and so I put myself in a place where He can.

And that’s when I find myself singing ….

I see hope

I see hope

I see hope

I see hope on my horizon

Do you?