Every single morning as the sun rises, the day is full of possibilities.
However, there are days when I see no possibilities at all. I have zero peripheral vision. I’m stuck and lost in my head.
I remember being fresh out of divorce and the fear of being able to make it on my own. It was a hazardous road. HARD doesn’t do it justice.
BUT...
Possibilities are the hope we haven’t considered or have not been presented with before.
I rejected the little hope I did have because I chose to believe I had no reason to hope for anything. Let me say this: We can reject hope or believe we shouldn’t consider it to be hope, but the fact remains: it is still hope.
Possibilities are endless, never-ending, always right in front of you. The problem may be you. You may be in a funk, struggling with depression, in a bad relationship, or hate your job. You are blind. Life is happening so hard and fast right now, you can barely tread water.
You wonder when will this end? How in the world will I get out of this mess? When will I begin to see the possibilities again?
Consider this: every breath you take is the opportunity to see the next possibility.
Let me interject here: God is the God of all possibilities and the God of Hope. This is a foundational truth we have come to lean on in our faith journey. I know this and believe it to my core. But, at this moment, I've lost sight of this fact.
Because we are inward-focused (as all of us are in a moment of crisis), unable to see any more possibilities; we are stuck in our heads. On repeat is this voice saying, “This is never going to work! I will not get out from under this.” Can you relate? Our finite brain has exhausted all the possibilities we can think of. We’ve lost hope. There is no way out.
Then someone asks a question the right way or has a suggestion we were unable to see. This sparks the possibility/hope we’ve been dreading to believe for fear there are none available.
Possibility is the only hope. In reality, the impossibility of our own making only leaves room for the real possibility of Hope.
In Max Lucado’s book, The Applause of Heaven, he shares the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and Sarah had run through most of Sarah’s possibilities. Her way of doing things, which as it turned out, didn’t turn out at all. Her possibility turned into a disaster for her. He gave her the free will to make her choices (and she did). Then He, being God, came and gave them His possibility. God’s possibilities always equal hope. He turns the impossible into hopeful possibilities.
Just when we have reached the end of our possibilities, God does His thing.
He sends His hope and we laugh because there is absolutely no way to solve this, figure this out, or have any faith left on our own.
Listen to what Lucado says about Abraham and Sarah, “ They laugh because they have given up hope, and hope born anew is always funny before it is real. They laugh at the lunacy of it all.” (The Applause of Heaven)
Isn’t it so true? We laugh because there is no way in our minds; I’ve done all I know to do, and God shows up and bulldozes the forest to make a road where there wasn’t one. I hadn’t thought of that possibility, because, I’m not God. A clear path from point A to point B.
His way is always fresh. His way always supersedes what we know and understand. It’s the way our faith is built. If He answers the way we understand it, then there’s nothing left to be awestruck over. When He answers in a way we can’t comprehend, then we are in awe and wonder over how He did it. Simply put, He surprised us. He understood His assignment and knew we needed to be awestruck.
When we look at Hope we realize it is irrational. Let me explain it this way: when I say I am full of hope of some out-of-the-ordinary hope, others might look at it as irrational. Irrational because they think I have lost my mind. No, we seemingly have no more possibilities ahead of us and we are stretched to believe in a hope that proves us irrational.
When you have exhausted all your possibilities; remember that God is full of them! Even if someone’s possibility doesn’t work for you in the end; it does open the door of hope that a possibility is waiting for you. You have permission to ask for help.