How Hope Changes Everything
If you've ever written a book or a poem or maybe a song, then you know one of the first questions people tend to ask you is, "Why?" Why did you write that? Why did you create that? I think it's a fair question. People want to know about the heart behind y
Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Pete Wilson, founding pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville. Let Hope In, Pete’s anticipated book, presents a new look at the power of healing through hope, revealing four choices that will change your life. Visit him on his blog or connect via Twitter @PWilson.
If you've ever written a book or a poem or maybe a song, then you know one of the first questions people tend to ask you is, "Why?"
Why did you write that? Why did you create that?
I think it's a fair question. People want to know about the heart behind your creation, why behind what you do.
Photo Credit: fusion-of-horizons via Compfight cc
Since the release of my new book, I've been asked that question a lot:
"Pete, why did you write it?"
My answer? Well, I really believe hope changes everything. I believe it can disarm guilt, shatter shame, and put your past in its place.
All you have to do is make the choice to let hope in.
It won't be easy. It won't be quick. But it's possible.
Even if you've experienced pain in your past?
Yes, especially if you've experienced pain in your past.
You see, some people will never get beyond the pain of their past. It will wreak havoc in their personal and professional lives, because they will keep cursing their pain and it'll keep cursing them back.
They'll choose to believe they are inseparably attached to their past without realizing they are, in fact, making a choice to hold on to it. They will hold on to it in one of two ways:
they will give in to it with a self-loathing that ensures perpetual misery and failure, or...
they will wage an angry and desperate war against it in an effort to bury its devastation in self-denial.
Either way, they will never surrender the past pain. They will hold on to the idea that they shouldn’t have had to go through that pain and that life is not fair.
And they will, therefore, miss out on the brand-new ending that could be theirs.
Then there’s a group of people who will take a different path...
They will realize their past isn’t really their past. They will come to grips with the fact that their past pain is still impacting them and choose to rise above it.
In an incomprehensible twist, they will surrender their pain, instead of ignoring or denying there is strength in letting go. it. They will choose to be emptied of it.
And in a glorious miracle, God will actually use the pain of their past to help redeem others — in effect, allowing them to find purpose in the pain.
This choice isn’t easy. You have to choose to do something you think you can’t do. It requires a resolve that can only be found deep within your soul.
But this choice does nothing less than determine your destiny.
It all comes down to one choice
It’s the choice to let go of your desire to have life go the way you planned it. It’s the choice to find hope in your hurt.
It’s the choice called surrender.
There is strength in letting go. There is radical power in surrender. And I pray that today you begin your journey to let hope in today.
How has hope changed everything for you? Share in the comments.