MEDITATION:
Written by Barbara Johnson (1927-2007), an American Christian author. This is an excerpt from a book she co-authored, “Outrageous Joy.”
Someone once said, “There are no hopeless situations—only people who are hopeless about them.” Bonnie St. John Deane learned that truth firsthand in the 1984 Disabled Olympics. In the first run down the slalom course, she soundly beat her closest competitor, a skier from Austria. She confidently expected to finish first again on the second run and win the medal. Instead she fell on a patch of ice. Greatly disappointed, Bonnie halfheartedly stood up and finished the course. The Austrian won the gold medal—but not for skiing a flawless course. In fact, she too, slipped and fell. She won gold, “not for skiing faster but for getting up faster,” Bonnie wrote in her book, Succeeding Sane, “From that experience Bonnie learned that ‘winners aren’t people who never make mistakes. Winners are those who get up and finish. Gold-medal winners get up the fastest.’ ”
What a powerful analogy of the difference hope makes in our lives! Hope gives us a confident attitude that helps us get back up if we should fall. It injects us with a healthy dose of joy that assures us that no matter what happens to us on the course of life, we do not “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” [1 Thessalonians 4:13].
PRAYER:
Written by Ambrose of Milan (339-397), a bishop of Milan who contributed to theology and doctrine of the early Christian Church and influenced Augustine of Hippo.
Merciful Lord,
Comforter and Teacher of your faithful people,
increase in your Church the desires you have given.
Strengthen the hearts of those who hope in you,
and show them the depth of your promises.
Lead all your adopted children to see with the eyes of faith,
and help them wait patiently for the light that is now hidden;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Pathways Press.com 