What Does Hope Look Like?

by Beth K. Vogt @BethVogt
Have you watched the news this past week? 
It would be so easy to leave the news on all day long. Or to keep checking my news app on my phone. The all-caps headlines scream for our attention:War in UkraineOngoing economic stressors of increasing gasoline prices and inflation The bitter infighting between political partiesAnother heartbreaking school shooting We can all agree there’s a lot that could distract us from our writing.
I haven’t even mentioned the personal issues we struggle with. Health. Family relationships. Doubts. Imposter syndrome. 
Life is hard. Frustrating. Frightening. 
And yet, despite all these hard, frustrating, and frightening things I mentioned—and everything else I could have mentioned‚I’m going to ask you to choose one thing to focus on today: hope.
If you’re wondering what hope looks like right now, I’ll tell you: it looks like a little girl hiding in a Ukrainian bomb shelter, who stands up and serenades all the other people there by singing “Let It Go” from the movie “Frozen.”
 
Life’s scary for everyone right now. Maybe you’re not hiding in a bomb shelter—but like so many of us, you’re heartbroken for so many people facing the horrors of war. Or maybe you’re overwhelmed by an ongoing struggle. Or you’ve been devastated by a personal loss. 
Here’s my challenge to all of us today: Are we looking for hope? And when we find it, are we offering hope to others?
We have a choice—to stay quiet, to stay scared…or to speak words of hope. 
May we be encouraged by the example of a little girl today, my friends. And may we look for an opportunity, big or small, to offer hope to others.
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Beth K. Vogt believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” Having authored nine contemporary romance novels and novellas, The Best We’ve Been, the final book in Beth’s Thatcher Sisters Series with Tyndale House Publishers, releasers May 2020. Other books in the women’s fiction series include Things I Never Told You, which won the 2019 AWSA Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year, and Moments We Forget. Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Learn How to Write a Novel and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. Visit Beth at bethvogt.com.