Welcome!
Last month we started our faith, hope, and love journey talking about faith. I loved everyone’s responses. Now this month we’re turning to hope. What a beautiful word, right?
The catalyst for Rich in Hope was a commercial I saw. A popular store for ladies to buy intimates was advertising their show coming up. A model walking the runway threw my mind into a spin. “What if that’s all she knew how to do, and she couldn’t do that anymore?”
So I wrote a book about that girl. Her name is Jenny Harris. She was without hope. And it was Christmas when the hope of the world was born. Bad timing. She wanted to spend Christmas alone and just the opposite happens. Throw in a rogue photographer, a blind 7 year-old, and a fake engagement, and you get Jenny’s very unsolitary holiday.
But isn’t that how life happens? When we least expect it. When we feel like we’re without hope, options, a future, the Lord reigns us in. Not only with His Word, but with people and life happening around us. We weren’t meant to do life alone. Sometimes we can get so caught up in ourselves that we can’t see the beauty around us. Jenny Harris was not a Christian at the beginning of this book. Her life was worldly and she was proud of that.
Stephen? He was a Christian and confounded Jenny in more than one way. His goal? To show her beauty from the inside out. To show her there is hope even when it doesn’t appear that way.
I know the Lord worked on my heart as I was writing this book. He showed up over and over and in one of the final read throughs I cried for two days off and on at the thread he had woven through the book without me knowing it at the time. The Lord is our hope.
When beautiful underwear model, Jenny Harris, is scarred from a botched facial surgery she finds herself distraught and not in the mood for Christmas. Her best friend offers her brother, Stephen’s, waterfront home for a holiday sabbatical. But Stephen returns unexpectedly. It seems the wildlife photographer has put himself in a compromising position, and his employer has grounded him. While Jenny doesn’t understand Stephen’s lack of compassion for her situation, he can’t understand her obsession about her looks. When Jenny, in an attempt to help Stephen and assure her holiday lodging, announces to his boss that she’s his fiance, a whirlwind fake courtship ensues. But Jenny soon finds herself falling for the renegade photographer who’d rather spend his time in the wilds of the jungle than in civilization. Will Jenny’s new perspective on life giver her the hope she’s been searching for, or will it lead to broken dreams and a broken heart?
I’d love to hear your stories of hope. We all have them. We may even be going through them now. I’ll pick one commenter at random to receive a copy of Rich in Hope.
USA Today featured author Lindi Peterson lives in north Georgia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with her husband and a lively array of cats, dogs and birds. She loves sharing life with her family and friends. Her passion for reading led her to writing, and then God spoke words of love into her heart and changed her life forever.
Hope is something I cling to. When I first started getting the 24/7 migraine pain which ended up being chronic daily migraine and Occipital Neuralgia I didn’t know how I would cope with the constant pain. It was when hope is what I held onto. (That was about 8 years ago) If you had told me back then I would still have 24/7 head pain I am not sure I could have coped. Hope was the word that got me through. Hope that the pain would go away, hope for a cure, hope to just handle each day. Hope also stands for Hold On Pain Ends. I have a plaque with Hope on it which is a comfort. Without hope I don’t think I would have coped.
For myself the year of 2020 was filled with hope. After undergoing 3 surgeries my hope is that the issues are finally rectified. Tysm
My Hope is in the Lord, and knowing that someday I’ll get to see Him face-to-face, along with the ones that have gone before me.
Jenny—-What an incredible testimony! Thank you for sharing and I love the acronym Hold On Pain Ends. I can’t imagine what you endured with that. I have migraines occasionally, and it’s a terrible illness. Thank you for giving others encouragement today!
Kelley—Praying your issues are resolved! 2020 was already a difficult year for many, I can’t imagine having to go through surgery–let alone 3–during that time. Thank you for sharing and inspiring others!
Trudy—Yes!! The eternal hope. What a glorious promise from God. Thank you for sharing and reminding us of our eternal future.
I had medical issue just before the pandemic and God is always with us and that give me hope.
JCP—Yes!! How true. Knowing we are walking with God gives us hope for all situations. Thank you for sharing.
Hope and trust in the Lord! Let’s what carried me through the cancer journey! He is faithful <3
I have to remind myself that my hope is in the Lord. Nothing in this world will last or ever be able to give me what I truly need, no matter how much I try to find it in things or people. I need to hold things loosely and remember that Christ is my only hope and this world is just a stepping stone to Him.
Natalya—Great testimony! He’s our healer for sure. Thank you for sharing.
Megan—Yes! We are in the world not of the world. What a great reminder. Do life while we’re here, with each other, but Christ is our hope in everything. Thank you for sharing.
Hope, like faith and love, can have both human-focused and God-focused meanings. It can be hard sometimes, especially when we are in the middle of trials, to tell the difference.
Here is a definition of biblical hope that I have found helpful.
“Hope is the joyful expectation that God’s promises are true and certain and that they are ours.”
This quote from Emily Dickinson speaks to the feeling of delight that that hope brings.
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all. ~ Emily Dickinson
This poem is one that I wrote which expresses the journey in our struggles from hope of the world to hope in God.
Things Lost
I tremble at the awful cost
Of lives now gone, of loves now lost.
I cannot walk with confidence.
But rather sit within my fence
Of silent ache, imagining
What might have been, and muttering,
With grimace hid yet fingers curled,
About injustice in my world.
The hope I hold is in my mind.
It’s not the truly helpful kind.
The sort that seeps within the soul
The kind that helps to make you whole.
Yet hope is not on hoping based.
It is on something worthy placed.
The questions I feel posed to me:
Will I be blind or will I see?
Will I accept that life has pain?
And will I choose to love again?
Can I believe in future good?
Can I grasp life as though I could?
What is it that my God has planned?
What gift is waiting in His hand?
I know that I’m more likely to
Reject His steadfast choice to woo.
So, where from here, my wayward heart?
Come, let your long-sought healing start.
The pain may be acute at first.
A desert time may hone your thirst.
But if hope can in Him be placed,
(An honest me when with truth faced
Would have to say it can indeed)
Then let His love for me proceed.
Tonight my rest may still be rough,
Tomorrow’s joy not be enough.
Yet, day by day, I’ll look for Him
And even though my sight is dim,
My heart will start to understand.
I’ll feel the warm, caressing hand
Of love. A love which only and
Forever
Comes
From God.
© 2021, Lincoln Clark
Praise God that our hope in Him is sure!
I have held on to hope all my life. I have survived a fire as well as injured at a job not sure if I would be able to walk again. The second injury in the parking lot of my job left me disabled. I have had hope that after 15 months with my leg locked straight that I would be able to bend or walk on my leg again. With the help of a walker, I have continued to be able to walk and stand for short distances. I am praising the Lord for every step I am able to take. Thank you for such a thought provoking blog. God bless you.
My Hope is my Epilepsy gets better & this virus goes away
Love Lincoln’s response.
My hope is that everyone has hope, secular or faith based or both, to support them throughout their lives.
Hope is what we need to help give us a purpose and reason when we’re leaning on our faith.
The Lord never makes his presence more noticeable than when we have lost all hope and our life plans fall apart.
This is why I never liked “Me Before You”. That movie does not leave a final lesson of hope for people who suffer an accident and cannot recover their lives as they were before.
Jesus gives me hope everyday! In hard situations, I have a hope that He will work things out for my good (Romans 8:28), in uncertain times, I have hope that He is with me (scripture promises), in any circumstance He gives me hope and a promise to care for me always.
Lincoln! What a beautiful poem!
Yet hope is not on hoping based.
It is on something worthy placed.
The questions I feel posed to me:
Will I be blind or will I see?
I loved it all, but this spoke to me—-it’s not a bling hope—it is worthily placed.
Thank you for sharing. I used to write poetry a lot, but haven’t in while. Maybe you’ve inspired not only me, but others!
Lincoln! What a beautiful poem!
Yet hope is not on hoping based.
It is on something worthy placed.
The questions I feel posed to me:
Will I be blind or will I see?
I loved it all, but this spoke to me—-it’s not a bling hope—it is worthily placed.
Thank you for sharing. I used to write poetry a lot, but haven’t in while. Maybe you’ve inspired not only me, but others!
Amy—prayers for you! There is so much going on in today’s world.
Dianne—Lincoln’s response! Yes. :) When people say they’ve lost hope, it is a dark place for sure. Prayers!
Denise! Yes! We lean on a faith that we have confidence in because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. :) Thank you for sharing.
Lily–I haven’t seen that movie. And yes, the Lord is always there and His presence is felt in the times of life plans falling apart. Thank you for sharing.
Trixi–I bought a book of God’s promises. It’s a great quick reference. All for His good and His glory! Thank you for sharing.
Lily–I haven’t seen that movie. And yes, the Lord is always there and His presence is felt in the times of life plans falling apart. Thank you for sharing.
Nor do I advise watching it, it is a very famous secular film that I saw with my mother because of the good reviews.