Keeping Our Focus And Knowing There Is Always Hope

Geri 0:01

How can I be so sure there is always hope? This is one of my favorite topics. Come on, let's dive in. Welcome to Hope Blvd. I'm Geri Carlson. Thank you so much for tuning in. I am really glad you're here. This is episode number five of Hope Blvd, and I am enjoying connecting with all of you. Please let me know what resonates with you and what's been helpful so far, or what it is that you want to hear from me in future shows. All right, I'm looking forward to today's show. There is so much goodness.

Sweet Words...And Profound

Speaker 0:45

Starting out with one of the nuggets that was a blessing to me during some of my darkest days, I want to tell you about a smart little four-year-old girl. She just happens to be my granddaughter. About a year before I became ill with the severe porphyry attack that caused me to become completely paralyzed. I speak about it in previous episodes. My little four-year-old granddaughter said something that I thought was really incredible at the time. And it stuck with me when I became hospitalized and bedridden a short time later. I was spending time with two of my granddaughters. And out of the blue, as if she just wanted me to know, my sweet little granddaughter said, We can do hard things, Grandma. We can do hard things. I'll never forget her sweet voice. I realize she probably learned that from her mother, Amy. And I love that. My precious granddaughter would have no idea how profound those words were, and how I would reflect on it over the course of those two years, most of it lying still in a hospital bed. The hardest days of my life. But God. God knew. We can do hard things, Grandma, we can do hard things.

Hard Things

Speaker 2:14

Sometimes life is hard and not always fair. So how do we keep our mind focused? Really, how do we keep our mind focused on anything good or positive when we're overwhelmed with such pain or struggle? When we wake up the next day and nothing's changed. Everything is still the same. In my case, I still couldn't move. I'm still looking at the ceiling. I'm still able to turn my head a little, but I am not able to function without the help of so many people. How do we focus? And what do we focus on? Another day of this? One day turned into 200 days, 300 days? How do we focus when things aren't changing? I recently spoke with a dear friend. He remembers when he and his wife came to see me when I got home. He said, I'll never forget. We asked you how you were doing. And you said, look, I can move my hand a little. This man had tears rolling down his face remembering this. And he was sitting there looking at someone who had gone completely paralyzed, but I had hope because my hand was starting to move. I had so far to go from there, and I know it. And I remember when that happened, but I didn't know it touched him that way. You know, God is amazing because God knew that I would be sitting here today talking about it. That was only two years ago.

Start With Gratefulness

Speaker 3:56

So when I think about things to focus on, I start with gratefulness. I think we have to start there. Because there is always something to be grateful for. And if you have to start with something as small as the air that you breathe, okay, then at least you have air to breathe. Or a warm bed. Or if you don't have a warm bed, what you do have. And that God is with you every day, even when we don't feel like He is. I'm going straight to my faith take today, friends, for two verses actually that show us that there is always hope. This is what I thought of when I laid in that hospital bed. How many hundreds of times I told my clients, whether they were counseling clients or coaching clients, how many times did I tell them that there is always hope? Or how many times did I help them with their focus in life? I knew because I had put it into practice before, but I never had it put to the test like this. This was my darkest hour. And as I laid there every day, I thought of my clients. I really did. That was very real to me. I gave them instructions on how to do this. Now it's my turn. And I know I've had my turn and I know I've put it into practice, but I've never had to put it into practice like this. So as I lay there, I thought about these verses. And I thought about what it was going to mean for me going forward. I didn't know if I'd ever walk again. I didn't know if I would survive. I didn't know if I was going to live or if this porphyria, this severe attack from variegate porphyria was going to take me. Because my family was warned that that was a very real possibility. It was rough.

The God Of Hope

Speaker 6:01

The first verse I want to read comes from Romans 15, verse 13. This is the Apostle Paul talking. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, we don't talk about the Holy Spirit a lot in many Christian circles, and some evangelical circles, I know that that's something that you don't hear a lot about. You don't hear a lot of sermons about it. I think it may be getting better now, but the power of the Holy Spirit, as it speaks of here in Romans 15: 13, that is that's no pie in the sky stuff. The Holy Spirit takes its direction from God Almighty. So the God of hope, and I love, I love that it just puts it right there, the God of hope. We serve a God of hope. So why wouldn't we think that there is always hope? There is always hope. And I'm going to show you further why I believe t hat. There's

My Life Verse

Speaker 7:09

only one way I got through that first year. I didn't just have it in me to believe God would show up. I believed. I trusted in the God of hope to instill in me not only hope, but joy, peace, and anything else I needed to get through that awful time. And he did that through the Holy Spirit. That's the only reason I'm here today. I'm going to add one other scripture, and this one is my life verse. It's hard to have just one, isn't it? There's so many good verses, but this one I claim is my life verse. When you're lying in a hospital bed or sitting with a loved one who is dying, or your financial situation is so bleak, you don't know how you're going to survive. Or when life is just so heavy and you are hurting in any way, we can lose our focus. But stand, friend, I am talking to you. There's a scripture that instructs us on how to stay focused no matter what. I've shared this verse with most of my counseling and coaching clients. I think it's a life-changing verse. If we let it be, if we follow it and take action, it's Philippians 4.8. And here's what it says: Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or worthy of praise, dwell on these things. In the Greek text, it says to think about such things, and that word think in the translation actually means to think and keep on thinking. So I love using one of the translations that uses the word dwell. Dwell on such things. You know, Philippians 4, 6 through 9 really puts it into even more perspective. And I want to share that with you: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Now this was the Apostle Paul talking, and he was saying, Look, I'm living my life for Jesus. I'm living my life for Christ. So follow these things. And by the way, where was Paul when he was saying all these things? He was in prison. He was in prison, encouraging others outside of the prison walls, and these words are left for us. If Paul can be that encouraging during a really dark time in his life, for me, that's encouraging. For me, that's uplifting. For me, that's inspiring. I love that he shared that. I love just the strength. You know, sometimes we forget that we are stronger than we know. And when we run out of strength, that's when the Lord taps in. And you know what? That's when we see his glory.

Disappointments and Choices

Speaker 11:04

In the days after, this was soon after Jesus was crucified. Where did their leader go? I mean, he had died and he had risen. They weren't what he wasn't walking the earth anymore. It's not like they could hop on a plane and go and see him. He was now with his father in heaven. And really wanting for people to not forget the things that Jesus taught. The Apostle Paul, as well as the disciples, were out spreading the good news and spreading what they had learned from Jesus. So this was really important. And I think that they were trying to help people hang on and to trust. You know, trust is a choice. We either believe or we don't believe. If we don't believe, then where will you find your hope? If you don't find it with a God of hope, I don't know that you'll ever find it. There is only one God of hope. And He is the one who's going to see you through. For me, lying in a hospital bed for a year, I placed my hope in God Almighty. And it didn't fail me. He didn't fail me. It doesn't mean that I get whatever I want. I mean, I prayed for a full healing. I didn't get one yet. I will. This side of heaven or the other, I will. But I didn't get a full healing. I'm walking with a cane and I have braces on my feet. My hands don't work that well. So, you know, it falls short a little bit. But I know, I believe, I trust that God has a reason why. He has a reason for that. There's some purpose in it. And the ultimate purpose is to glorify God, to bring glory in the end. I'm all for that. That's what I want. He deserves that. Any father in heaven who sends his son to earth to be crucified for my sins, what do you want me to do? I am all in. If there's ever been anyone who deserves it, it's Jesus Christ. And I'm grateful. I'm beyond grateful. Even lying in the hospital bed, I had to remain grateful. I chose to. That's a choice. And that's what I'm really trying to express here is just the fact that we have a choice to be grateful. We have a choice to believe. We have a choice to trust. Are you going to do it? Because it takes action. And the kind of action that I'm talking about is living your life for God, talking to God. In Philippians 4, 6, it says to let your requests be made known to God. How are we going to do that? That takes a conversation. That takes talking to God. And that's a relationship. I would start there. I would sharpen that. Because if you're talking to a God of hope, how do you not hold on to hope?

Defying the Odds

Speaker 14:21

I didn't know if I would ever walk again. I didn't know. Listen, I all I knew is what I was being told. And I was being told I needed to be in hospice and there was no hope. And that my time was limited. And then there were moments that I ended up in ICU and my family was told to say goodbye to me. There were really bleak moments to say the least. Was I going to believe even then? What was I going to do? Throw in the towel and pray to a tree. I mean, there's one God of hope. And he's real and he's there. And he created you. There is always hope. Always. And I wouldn't believe anyone who told me otherwise.

The Focus

Speaker 15:13

This is the focus. If I could, I would write on a I used to do this for my clients. Um, I used to write out this verse, Philippians 4.8. And I at one point I even put a little magnet on the back of it so that they could go home and put it on the refrigerator. Um, but I used to write it out and say, you know, just get a magnet and put this on your refrigerator or at your nightstand or your bathroom mirror, wherever you want. But memorize it, believe it, live by it. And that is the eighth verse. Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise, dwell on these things. When times get hard, I repeat that verse. I have it to memory. I don't have a whole lot to memory, but that's one thing that is there, rock solid. And I remember I have a choice where my focus is going to be. When we're staring at an area and we're focusing on what we believe should be a hopeful situation, and it turns out not to be. And that's often when people say, it's hopeless, there's no hope. That is not true. You may be looking long and hard in one area, but sometimes, and I believe that's what these verses are showing us, sometimes we need to pivot our feet and look in another direction for our hope. We need to stay open enough to find our hope in another direction. Pivot and refocus. God of hope is there. He never will. Because he loves you unconditionally. I hope that you will take this to heart and that you will believe it and that you will trust in this God, the one true God. I pray that you will do that. Sometimes we need a shift in perspective. I know I do, but remember, pivot your feet to see hope. Don't miss it. Stay open to new possibilities. And in the words of a very sweet granddaughter, we can do hard things, Grandma. We can do hard things.

Speaker 17:46

Thank you so much for listening. If any of this has been helpful or encouraging, please hit the like button and share it with someone else who could use some encouragement or hope. In the meantime, until our paths meet again, make it a great day for you and someone else. And remember, friends, there is always hope. Always.

Worth repeating...

Speaker 18:12

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If there is anything excellent or worthy of praise, dwell on these things.