Handing Out Hope

You call out to God for help and He helps -

He's a good Father that way. 

But don't forget, He's also a responsible Father,

and won't let you get by with slopping living!

1 Peter 1:17 [The Message]

Yesterday, my favorite country radio station was holding a fundraising campaign for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee.  A leading research hospital in childhood cancers, St. Jude's is an amazing place where families devastated by a diagnosis of cancer can find hope and the possibility of a few more days/months/years with their precious child, or even a cure.  I have always been deeply moved by the stories of parents who have taken their child to St. Jude's, and I have been a Partner in Hope with the hospital for three years.

When I was finally home from work and errands yesterday, I received a phone call from my middle daughter, asking if I had $25 to spare.  "Depends," I said, "on what it is for."  She send me to Facebook, and the page of a mutual friend who recently married and gained a little daughter as well as a wife.  When the page came up, his post indicated that his daughter was riding in a "Trike-a-thon for St. Jude's" at her preschool, and she was raising funds on Daddy's Facebook page.  This darling child is going to ride her tricycle so that other children can find hope in their catastrophic illness.  St. Jude's founder's daughter, Marlo Thomas, often says, "Give thanks for the healthy children in your life, and give to those who are not."

When we have a need, we turn to God, and He blesses us out of His abundance - perhaps not what we wanted, but a blessing always comes.  The blessing does come with a caveat, however: Give thanks for the blessings God has given you, then turn to someone else and pay it forward.  God does not want us to hoard the hope.  There are far too many people on this earth who cannot see hope for the misery of their lives.  We have the opportunity to be a channel of hope to those around us.

We are His hands to touch the world around us,

We are His feet to go where He may lead,

And we are His love, burning in the darkness,

We are His love, shining in the night.