There is no hope except in God

It’s Testimony Tuesday, and as this year’s SUMMIT OF HOPE approaches, we asked some of our incredible volunteer state representatives to share their stories of hope... Today’s comes from Brian who found hope in the midst of crushing grief. “The Psalmist wrote, “There is no hope except in God”. But I had to ask myself, on what is my hope based?

On Memorial Day of 2015 my daughter went to the hospital after becoming dehydrated. Later that day, my son called me to tell me that Heather had gone into cardiac arrest but that they were able to restart her heart. I was devastated. What went from being being dehydrated to a life-threatening event was incomprehensible. My son called again to tell me that Heather had coded a 2nd time. Finally the call came that I had been dreading. That morning my wife and I were like zombies as we drove to Maryland to say good bye and bury my daughter. As I walked away from the cemetery, I turned to look back to witness the backhoe tamping the ground down over my daughter’s grave. I’ve played that scene repeatedly in my mind for almost 4 years, beset by “what if’s” and “why”, being angry with God, and filled with guilt that I didn’t stay up that night in prayer. I felt like it was a joke to have hope.

But God showed up as I grieved and continue to grieve the loss of my daughter. He reminded me of the women who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body; that they too must have lost hope. He reminded me that what they had been hoping for was in the natural, what they could see and feel, He reminded me that they weren’t looking to the “invisible spiritual realities”. But God also reminded me that they bore witness to the “resurrection power” of a holy and righteous God who raised Jesus from the grave. The same resurrection power was there when my daughter closed her eyes on this earth and opened them to see Jesus. And, it is that same resurrection power that lets me walk in victory in my daily recovery from my addiction to alcohol and struggle with co-dependency... and in my grief.

The Psalmist wrote,”There is no hope except in God”. This is where I find my Hope.

HopeThank you for letting me share.