by Joanne Wiklund
When our children were small, we visited my grandmother in Des Moines. The trip was tough on our little guy, who was always moving and hated to be confined. As the trip wore on, he did too, with his constant question: “Are we there yet?” I tried to answer with encouraging information. But he couldn’t quit with his question: “Are we there yet?”
His older sister decided to help so next time he asked his question, she listened carefully to my answer, and then asked her own question: “Well, are we closer than we are farther?” That stopped my rambling answer. “Yes,” I said, “We are closer than we are farther.’ I think now she was only trying to give them hope, hope that this trip would not last forever. Hope they could make it. And hope that when we arrived he would stop asking THAT QUESTION!
This morning I stopped asking God the question: “Are we there yet?” Seems like we’ve all been asking that as the pandemic overtook our lives and changed them. Other problems magnified the mess. Hope is a terrible thing to lose. We try so hard to be patient, to learn new things. We do things we never thought we’d do. We hope we’re not losing our minds. When I put chili powder on my oatmeal this week instead of cinnamon, I knew I was in trouble. My niece said when I told her I’d done that, “Oh, Cajun Oatmeal.” Back to my prayers for sanity.
God answered our prayers after seven days of prayer and hope. No more Intensive Care Unit. My brother Jim is in a different room and I actually got to talk to him on the phone. We’re there. God is good. No matter what the problem, don’t lose HOPE. Hold On, Pray Expectantly.
1 Peter 1:13 “… Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; that your faith and hope be in God.”
Hope is perhaps the most important thing to change and to finding your way. It is without a doubt the biggest thing I try to instill in my students who often come to our skill with little hope of succeeding in school or in life. Many are beaten down by their world so far. Without hope, little positive can happen.