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The Amazing Power of Hope

                For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to go to Cape Canaveral, Florida and visit the “Kennedy Space Center”.  Last week, I got my chance. For an entire day, Sara and I wandered around marvelling over rockets, spacesuits and moon rocks.  It was incredible!
                The amazing thing about the space program is that it was built entirely on hope.  When John F. Kennedy made his famous speech stating that the United States was going to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade, America had put a grand total of one astronaut into space.  In fact, that historic flight by Alan Shepherd was not even an orbital mission.  All he did was go up and come back down.  In other words, NASA had no plans, no hardware and no capability to do what the president said they were going to do.  All they had was the hope that they could do it, but that hope made all the difference.          
                In the beginning, the rockets failed more often than they flew, but they looked at one another and said, “We are going to the moon!”   
                As their understanding and ability increased, they looked at one another and said, “We are going to the moon!”
                Even when a series of huge mistakes took the lives of three astronauts on Apollo 1, the hope of going to the moon moved the program forward and, because of that hope, they did not stop until they reached their goal.
                Hope is powerful!  Hope is fuel that keeps us going.  Hope enables us to dream, plan, think and see possibilities even when our circumstances are less than desirable.  Hope is essential for growth, progress and maturity.  When a feeling of hopelessness creeps in, we are done. 
                Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that the Bible says a great deal about hope.  In one instance, Paul says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19).  If hope sustains us in earthly things, how much more important is a hope that benefits us not only now, but eternally as well?
                Jesus’ death gives us hope and that hope changes everything.

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