In 1964, when he was seventeen years old, a young man attended a press conference where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke.
“Meeting Dr. King made me feel like I was part of the solution. He inspired hope and made me want to join him in his righteous crusade,” the man, now 78, said in a recent interview with AARP.
Yet, later that same year, when a protest he attended in Harlem turned violent, the same gentleman recalls how the event, “scared the hope out of me, at least temporarily.”
The guy who told the story above is none other than basketball great, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Yet, it’s not only the famous (or future famous) who have their highest hopes challenged and almost lost. It’s a familiar story to many of us.
I’m just a regular guy who was tempted to lose all hope but did not. It was God who made the difference.
Regular David (me)
I’ll spare you the details, but 25 years ago my hopes went from sky high to Death Valley low, all in the same year. Like Mr. Abdul-Jabbar, I had the hope scared out of me, at least temporarily.
As a committed Christian, I knew that God’s heavenly hope was more than wishful thinking, but during the Fall of 2000, when I hit rock bottom, the confident expectation that He worked for my ultimate good almost evaporated.
Yet there was still a spark in my soul that said God is always faithful to His own. So, I kept up my daily devotional time, which I’d been spending in Bible study and prayer since I was 15 years old.
One morning, the reading was based on a familiar scripture about confident hope. I’d read it many times before, but today it felt intensely personal.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23 (NIV)
The accompanying commentary provided righteous fuel for the soul-spark I mentioned earlier.
The Christian is personally related to the Lord of the universe, who is sovereign not only over all creation but also over every circumstance we experience.
Henry Blackaby
Kind reader, I’ve been to the brink and back, and am still here to give glory to God, because, as I commented to a blogger friend the other day, The Lord is the greatest hope dealer I’ve ever known.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
Hebrews 6:19a (NIV)
Thank you for reading. 🙏❤️ prayers and love.
The Stigma Stops Here.🛑
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Davids Daily Dose 
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