High, in the sky, apple pie hopes

I had some random thoughts today.
The theme of my thoughts?
Hope.
But not just any flat-out-boring-sized human hope will do.
As in, "I hope it doesn't rain today." 
or
"The only thing I can do is hope and pray for the best."
or
"I hope to make a difference in the lives of others."
or
"I hope for world peace."

Blah, blah, bland.

These kinds of statements don't necessarily focus on hope, hopefulness, or the hope that is to come in the situations aforementioned. Rather, they disgustingly focus on the hopelessness within the situation(s) at hand, put 'prayer' as a last resort, and depict 'hope' as a destination that may or may not be attainable on this train-ride-go-around of life.

And, let me tell you people, that kind of hope simply won't do.

Which is why I'm not referring to that kind of hope….

I'm referring to something more.

A much greater Hope altogether.

In Goof Troop The Movie, dad and son are pictured singing at the top of their lungs as they go about their way on a road-trip-vacation-of-sorts. (I looked for a YouTube link to show you what I'm talking about here, but I couldn't find it…. so just trust me on this one.) In the cartoon video blast-from-the-past from my dear sweet childhood, this dad-and-son-duo sing their lungs out about some guy who has Hiiiiigh hopes. Yup, to quote them directly, "He's got Hiiigh hopes. Hiiiigh hopes. High, up in the sky, apple pie hopes." 

I wonder…..have you ever had "high, in the sky, apple pie hopes" about something, someone, some circumstance at hand, or some situation to come?

If so, what happened when you beefed up your hope a notch-'er-two and stepped onto the scale to measure what you gained from it all?

Restored purpose...
Increased faith?
Overflowing love??
Indescribable joy!!!
Or nothing at all.

Sometimes, we gain tons by adopting hope by the truckloads. 

Other times, we come up empty-handed, broken-hearted, and left yearning and "hoping" for more.
(Interesting how cyclical that type of thinking is, isn't it??)

Either way, whether we hope tons and gain tons or hope tons and gain nothing, every day there is still always a reason to hope.
Hope high.
In the Sky.
Apple Pie.
Hope(s).

The bland kind of hopes we normally settle into simply won't do.
Live life hopeful that the next big breakthrough in your life is right around the corner.
More than that, walk confidently with the knowledge that Jesus, your ultimate Hope, is standing in your corner ready to move on your behalf. He not only walks beside you, but He also goes before you. Protects you, and fights for you in ways that your comprehension can only scratch the surface of.

No matter what challenges life is throwing at you today, embrace Hope to get you through.
(Oh, and while I'm at it, can I mention this one little tidbit?!
Not only is Jesus (a.k.a. the Hope of the world) in your corner fighting on your behalf…..
He's also the heavy weight champion. :) )

He'll always break the scales we measure by. 
Go rest your faith and place your hope in that. :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Reader's Favorite Posts

"That's Not My Name!"

Hey. Okay. Say, you just meet someone new. What’s the first thing you usually ask them? ….Usually, it goes something like, “Hi, I’m so-and-so. What’s your name?” Their name. You’re usually concerned with a person’s name because it stands for the entirety of their identity. Think of famous people you know, and as soon as you think of their name, you think of something associated with them. The same thing is true for family members, close friends, co-workers, acquaintances, etc. A name holds a lot together, so you can be especially sure that I began to have difficulty when my name and identity began to get mixed up. Before I get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning. Hello. For those of you that do not know me, my name is Rosemary H Hazard. But for some reason, the hospital got it all confused. To them, I was Rosemary D Hazard. Many times over, I told them, “That’s not my name!” But for some reason, the bracelets, tags, stickers, etc. all said the same old thing. “ Rosema
Read more

For inquiring minds that would like to know… here's our story.

For some of you in my life, you've been asking, praying, and waiting to see something noteworthy happening in my dating life. So have I. Because I don't exactly know where to start, I'll simply begin at the beginning. Jeff and I both went to school together at Trinity Christian Academy here in Jacksonville from kindergarten to twelfth grade. From first grade to sixth grade, we had all the same teachers. Because our last names are so similar alphabetically (Hazard and Hill), we were seemingly ALWAYS sitting next to each other. Seriously. Always. Around. Each. Other. haha… For those of you that know me well or have known me for a long time, you know that God's done quite the work in my life over the years in chipping away some (note: not all) of my childhood sassiness and giving me a sweet spirit in its place. However, for those of you that knew me then, you would readily agree that I was quite the "over-confident little girl" (to quote my daddy).
Read more

The Birth of Hope

The Birth of Hope  And then Hope was born. Hope Elizabeth. February 25, 2017. When she was born, all 95 percentile of her filled in a portion of my heart that I never knew was vacant. As most would agree, the birth of a baby tends to change everything. And for me, everything did change. And not just at the time of birth. Roughly five months after her birth, everything for me began to change again.  At the end of July in 2017, I experienced an mental “episode” that landed me in a mental ward at a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Later on, I would come to realize that this episode was due to two known factors: the diagnosis of hypothyroidism (my thyroid numbers were off the charts... even my doctor at Mayo Clinic said it wasn’t the highest number he’s seen, but it was pretty close) and symptoms that closely align with what is called postpartum psychosis. Postpartum psychosis occurs roughly in 1 out of 1,000 births, so I doubt anyone that I know reading this would fully underst
Read more