The very first Hope Circle was birthed out of a picture God gave me one day as I was grappling to understand hope. Up until this point, I had always understood it as a feeling that came upon me because sorrow was lifted or an answer finally came. I always thought of hope as coming at the end of a sentence with an answer: “Because I got a clear pathology report, I have hope.” Or,  “Because I received a bonus to cover that unexpected medical bill, I have hope.” But on this day, it became something very different to me from a linear, logical equation. Hope became a no-matter-what promise, a beautiful, round circle full of colors and life. It became a truth not reliant on anything going on in my world. It became something that could be there for me when I had nothing else left.    

And maybe that is exactly where you are--with nothing left to give the world. Maybe you are sitting there with tears streaming down your face, afraid to hope again, especially today.  Maybe tomorrow—but not today. You have hoped before but everything still hurts. You may even be thinking, “Have I hoped wrong?” Maybe your hands are open and your face is tilted up just enough to see what happens because you have one little bit of hope left in your heart. Or maybe you are done, hurt one too many times by letting yourself hope once again.   

I want to tell you it’s okay to hope. It’s okay to hope, because the one thing you truly have hope in is there every single moment of every single day. You have hope in the never ending love of God for You. Your heart may still ache, but you have hope. Its okay to hurt and cry and feel all the thousands of feelings you feel in sadness and still have this hope. No one or no thing can take it from you. It is yours today and every single day. Those open hands are filled every day with the only hope that never changes or even waivers. Hope is not only found in the only one who will never leave you, Hope is that person. 

Hope is Jesus.   

Even on the days you wake up washed again by the grief of deep loss. Even on the days you wake up alone, facing betrayal in ways that just seem like too much. Even on the days where everything looks right to the world but something in your heart is anything but okay. Even today, you have hope. No matter what.  

And so it is my hope that these Hope Circle swill be an ever constant reminder of truth: You are loved. You will never ever be left alone.

You have hope.