THE GIFT OF HOPE

[MIRIAM JACOB]

THE GIFT OF HOPE
by Max Lucado

The aspiring young author was in need of hope. More than one person had
told him to give up. “Getting published is impossible,” one mentor
said. “Unless you are a national celebrity, publishers won’t talk
to you.” Another warned, “Writing takes too much time. Besides, you
don’t want all your thoughts on paper.”

Initially he listened. He agreed that writing was a waste of effort and
turned his attention to other projects. But somehow the pen and pad
were bourbon and Coke to the wordaholic. He’d rather write than read.
So he wrote. How many nights did he pass on that couch in the corner of
the apartment reshuffling his deck of verbs and nouns? And how many
hours did his wife sit with him? He wordsmithing. She cross-stitching.
Finally a manuscript was finished. Crude and laden with mistakes but
finished.

She gave him the shove. “Send it out. What’s the harm?”

So out it went. Mailed to fifteen different publishers. While the
couple waited, he wrote. While he wrote, she stitched. Neither expecting
much, both hoping everything. Responses began to fill the mailbox.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts.” “We must
return your work. Best of luck.” “Our catalog doesn’t have room
for unpublished authors.”

I still have those letters. Somewhere in a file. Finding them would
take some time. Finding Denalyn’s cross-stitch, however, would take
none. To see it, all I do is lift my eyes from this monitor and look on the
wall. “Of all those arts in which the wise excel, nature’s chief
masterpiece is writing well.”

She gave it to me about the time the fifteenth letter arrived. A
publisher had said yes. That letter is also framed. Which of the two is more
meaningful? The gift from my wife or the letter from the publisher? The
gift, hands down. For in giving the gift, Denalyn gave hope.

Love does that. Love extends an olive leaf to the loved one and says,
“I have hope in you.”

Love is just as quick to say, “I have hope for you.”

You can say those words. You are a flood survivor. By God’s grace you
have found your way to dry land. You know what it’s like to see the
waters subside. And since you do, since you passed through a flood and
lived to tell about it, you are qualified to give hope to someone else.

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What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts
and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this?
So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and
encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us.

(2 Cor. 1:3–4 TLB)
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From A Love Worth Giving: Living in the Overflow of God’s Love
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 2002) Max Lucado
www.maxlucado.com