Hope on the run...

Oh my, what a day...

Let's be real and let's get down to the facts of life. No matter how hopeful you are, no matter how positive you are, life happens. Events will unfold in a way that you simply are not prepared for them to.

Hope like joy takes practice...

Don't get me wrong, you can be hopeful in any moment at anytime or place that you choose to be, even if hope is not a habit for you. What I'm sharing is that a sustainable hope is something that is grown in the soil of time.

Like a garden your hope must be cared for as there will be weeds and there will be trash and there will dry seasons and also overly wet seasons. Regardless of the conditions, for your hope to thrive you must give it your attention and you must learn how to care for it as well.

If it's important it will get your attention!

Over time you will be rewarded in ways that you simply cannot imagine or know until you have put in the time and made the effort.

Hope will absolutely reward you...

When you make a commitment to hope and follow through you will begin to notice how the unexpected doesn't seem to take of course the way it use to.

Yesterday was one of those days for me...OMG!!!

I'm driving down the road, three lanes of traffic and as the traffic begins to come to a stop I push on my brake pedal, just as I always do, only to have it go crashing to floor...instantly the alarms start going off in my head...

- Is this really happening, I mean, am I really going to smash into the car that just came to a dead stop in front of me?

- Did I push the right pedal, quick double check...

- Pump the pedal, test it, see if it has stopped working all together.

...as I pump the pedal I feel the brakes come back online...YES...AWESOME...I must have pushed the wrong pedal or both the brake and the gas pedal at the same time. A few seconds
later it happens again... (oh no, this isn't good) ...it's time to get off the road and over to the side.

On the side of the road I quickly check for a leak and sure enough there is a puddle of brake fluid... (no way, how could it be?) ...doesn't matter it is!!! ...wink!

The really awesome thing is that it all happened while talking with my wife so she was able to come help out right away. The unfortunate thing...our communications broke down and the trip from the point of failure to the auto store was anything but fun.

Through it all, time just kept on ticking...grin! Oh NO...grin!

Still, hope was not lost...

With all of the events unfolding the way they did it could have been easy to say...

"NOT TODAY! Maybe tomorrow!"

...I didn't do that, instead I just got it done.

At best, we do things imperfectly!

So, it is what it is...I did the Hope Hotline call, it wasn't perfect, still I did it. Now it's time to move on.

Have an amazingly hopeful day,

James

PS: You can call in to leave a message by calling...

1 212-714-4673 (4673 = HOPE)