Hope in Front of Me

There's a song by Christian Artist, Danny Gokey that says "there's hope in front of me, there's a light, I still see it, Your hand is holding me, even when I don't believe it."  

So many of us, as entrepreneurs, understand that "hoping" for something isn't good business strategy.   We can have and embrace the confidence that if we do small things with great commitment and consistency that we will be able to accomplish big things over time.  The same can be said for an athletic pursuit.  No one (well, maybe a few have) wakes up and says "today, I am going to deadlift five times my body weight.  Yeah - won't happen. Not on anyone's best day and "hope" in that circumstance is simply insufficient. 

But what about when we SAY "I am 'hoping?' Or, "I am hopeful."  I HOPE this can/will happen. Is that a strategy?  Or, is it simply hope? And if it is hope, what then are we hoping for?  

Many have walked a road holding out "hope" that circumstances would change.  Those who have walked with a loved one through disease or addiction or grief KNOW that we cling to the HOPE that it won't always feel this way.  That the pain won't always feel like this.  They cling to the HOPE that one day, they'll wake up and what they have dreaded didn't happen.  Or, that enough time has passed, the sun has started to shine in their souls again.  Those people - others before them and others after - have clung to HOPE.  


Life, Beloved, is meant to be lived.  It is meant to be celebrated.  But living and celebration are hard when you can't find even a glimpse of  joy for where you are on the journey.  Where even your hope for what could be is absolutely nonexistent.  I get it.  TOTALLY.  I completely understand what it is to have such exquisite pain and sadness that you just feel hopeless.  Is there any feeling so difficult as the one that leads us to conclude there simply is no hope?  That there's nothing we can do?  I Honestly, I think that feeling might be the WORST EVER.  It's just so dark, we can't see daylight.  

Here's what I know and the sweetness I want you to hold onto today.  In work and enterprise "hope" isn't a plan.  We have to do the work to get the return.  Small, massive action done consistently over time yields big, long-running returns.  But, in life, holding ONTO hope IS a plan.  It's a good plan.  We don't know what the future hold but hope tells us ALL things are possible even if "hope" is all we have.  

As we navigate this season in our lives, we are doing the work we can and should do - grabbing joy for the journey where we can.  But we are also always clinging to the hope that is in front of us - the hope that affirms that lives can be turned around and even the most dire of situations can be redeemed.  The hope that this road turns and goes a different direction.  In life, sometimes hope is all we have to cling to.  While HOPE in business isn't a strategy or how we should set goals and plan actions, when life is hard and things are tough, hope is right in front of us guiding the way.  WGL, A2

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