We Work for Hope

We Work for Hope

I apologize that it has been over a year since I posted. I wanted to start back up for a couple of reasons. One is that some other blogs that I'm currently following have inspired me to pick it back up and try and stick with it. Also because after working at Boys Hope Girls Hope for over a year has inspired me and I feel that I need to reflect on my time here. 

Why Hope

I wanted to explain the name change. I changed "We Work for Less" to "We Work for Hope" because I have been living out hope all year, more so then living less. Also because some people have inspired me recently that have inspired me. 

In my friend's blog (Cameron) she talks about hope, which is when the reflection started. In her blog as well as Katie Davis's they speak on a scripture...

"Return to to you fortress, you prisoners of hope." Zechariah 9:12 and it got me thinking..."prisoner of hope." 

Hope has been a reoccurring theme in my life this year and I  have continuously passed over the term in my day to day life. I work for an organization with HOPE in the name, I looked into volunteering at an organization in Africa call Door of Hope. God has been throwing it in my face and I, being selfish in my own day to day routine, passed it over without a second glance! However, today I see it! I hear it...I AM A PRISONER OF HOPE! 

My passion for youth comes from me being a "prisoner of hope." Normally when we think prisoner it is met with a negative cogitation. We think of people being "locked up" or being prisoners of war. Dictionary.com defines it as "a person or thing that is deprived of liberty or kept in restraint" but when you are a "prisoner of hope" you are only restrained by knowledge that God is going to push you to go outside of your comfort zone. God is going to push you to HOPE, to hope to feed the hungry, to hope to heal the sick, hope to BE the church. 

God doesn't want us to dream he wants us to hope. Some dreams never come true but our hopes we can do something about. Hope means "the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best." Hopes can be put into action. Muhammad Gandhi said "be the change you wish to see in the world" he didn't say dream it he said be it. Hope is the bridge between dreams and reality, between "dreaming it" and "being it." I am not saying we should not dream. I think we need to dream and dream BIG. Dreams are often where our hopes derive from. However, to be God's "prisoner of hope" we have to be willing to serve him with our every fiber of our being, we have to be willing to let our hopes lead us out of our comfort zone. To have our hopes take us to Detroit, or Africa, or around the corner, or anywhere that we see that our hope can flourish. 

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things" -Shawshank Redemption