Having Some Hope

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. – Romans 12:12

How’s your hope? Are you patient when the bad times come up? How do you cope? What does it mean to persevere in prayer? How’s your prayer life?

The following is by William M. Buchholz, M.D. and was e-mailed to me.
As I ate breakfast one morning, I overheard two oncologists conversing. One complained bitterly, "You know, Bob, I just don't understand it. We used the same drugs, the same dosage, the same schedule and the same entry criteria. Yet I got a 22 percent response rate and you got a 74 percent. That's unheard of for metastatic cancer. How do you do it?"
His colleague replied, "We're both using Etoposide, Platinum, Oncovin and Hydroxyurea. You call yours EPOH. I tell my patients I'm giving them HOPE. As dismal as the statistics are, I emphasize that we have a chance."

In the movie “Dumb and Dumber” Lloyd asks Mary what his chances are of being able to date her. She says, “Not good.” When he asks if they are about one in a hundred not good she replies, “More like one in a million.” After pausing for a second Lloyd says, “So you’re telling me there is a chance… YEAH!” Some might say he was being optimistic but what he was really being was hopeful. Hopeful that however small the light there is, that there is a light. Paul believed there is always a light, even when it appears nearly extinguished. In that light he always had hope. It is what allowed him while locked in a prison to sing hymns and to pray. May we hold onto that same hope! With it we can do so much more.

With hope and joy,
Garrett