How Hope Can Change Your Life

It might sound silly to say hope can change your life, but without it, what do we have?

My Dad and I visit our favorite Mexican restaurant several times a month, always with a heart full of hope and a salivating tongue. I step gingerly as my Dad shuffles ahead of me, past the giant horse statue wearing a sombrero, and up to the hostess’s station. He asks for a table in his favorite spot—a small corner alcove—an oasis of a room in the huge restaurant. The hostess leads us to the room, waiters stand sideways in the hall while Daddy and his Rollator make their way to the table. We start hoping. Our future depends on one special lady.

Out for Lunch

We settle in the booth. The scent of a sizzling pan of steak fajitas at the adjoining table fills the air. A basket of chips and a bowl of salsa is set between us to munch on while we wait to see who will take our order, while we hope it’s our favorite waitress. We survey the menu, not reading as much as checking the photographs for a new concoction. The menu doesn’t matter—we know what we want to eat. Daddy digs into the chip basket, and I dig into my willpower, trying to avoid the heavenly crunch of salsa-n-chips.

I check out the waiters manning the area, still wondering if she’ll serve us. Of course, we come for the delicious food. It doesn’t really matter who serves. The iced tea tastes the same, no matter who serves it. The lemonade still has a bitter-sweet bite to it regardless of who carries it to the table. But we always hope we’ll have her.

Then she comes—our favorite waitress.

Our Favorite Employee

The waitress retrieves a pad and pen from her apron pocket. Efficiently, takes our order, then repeats it for clarification. “For you,” she says to me, “a spinach and cheese enchilada with a salad.”

The waitress turns to Daddy. “One order of chuletas—pork chops, rice, and beans with an extra cactus salad on the side. One lemonade and one tea.” We smile because we know she’ll get the order right. Daddy won’t accidentally get the carnitas—another pork dish instead of the chuletas—and I won’t get a chicken enchilada instead of a cheese enchilada.

Not only does our server make sure she communicates clearly with us, but it’s also what she always says that makes us wish for her. Whisking the basket of chips to refill and laying an extra stack of napkins down, she speaks the words that I anticipate as much as I anticipate the food.

“I will be right back.”

Promises to Keep

Five simple words. I dip a chip in the salsa, knowing she’ll keep her promise. She’s served us before. Within minutes, she brings us our drinks, refills the chips before the basket is empty, and replenishes the salsa and bean dip. It’s relaxing to know we won’t be sitting at the table with empty glasses and hungry stomachs wondering where the waiter is.

Why would such simple words bring me so much comfort? Seems so innocuous, but her words reassure me while we wait.

I watch her take an order at another table in her organized and systematic way. Back at our table, she informs us she has just spoken to the kitchen through the headset that she wears, and our food will be out soon.

Keeping Your Promises

Once, I was the one promising to be back. When I dropped my son off on his first day of preschool, he tightened his hand in mine as we strode into the building. I felt his apprehension, but I knew he’d participate in activities for three hours then I’d whisk him home. We hung up his backpack in the hallway, then walked to the classroom door. I bent and said, “I will be back when it’s time for lunch.” He nodded, hugged me, and found a seat at a table in front of his teacher.

A smile crossed my face as I thought about my son finding the square of fabric cut from an old shirt of mine that held my scent in his lunch box. Because we had discussed it the day before, he knew the fabric was there to remind him that his mother was not far away. Even if he felt homesick, he knew to push through the day because of my promise … I’ll be back.

Who Else Said They’d Come Back?

Jesus didn’t use that exact phrase—I’ll be right back. Here’s what he said to his disciples:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God^; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3 NIV

Let’s review. What did Jesus say in four words to offer us hope?

“I will come back.”

Four words.

One, two, three, four — simple words.

But there’s more to give us hope. He also said, “I will come back and take you to be with me.” Hope can change your life.

Hope for the Future

More than just a scrap of fabric, Jesus left us with an entire book to read. We can hold the Bible in our hands and read his words with the assurance he’s coming back.

Even when we’re having a bad day, we know the future holds promise.

Though this world offers us all a lot of sadness, we can focus on the promises of his second coming.

Ever wonder why some people keep smiling amid turmoil and trouble? They’re counting on the future. Their future with Jesus.

The apostle Paul spoke more about Jesus’ return. He wanted to spread hope to the people he witnessed to.

“It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day and by. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:13-18 NIV

What to Think When We Have Problems

EARTHY PROBLEM	HEAVENLY SOLUTION
When our heart aches …	remember, this is temporary.
When we see despair …	do not lose heart.
When we wonder how bad our troubles can get?	Fix our eyes on what is not seen—eternal glory.

So, my friends, while we wait for the Lord’s return, take heart with the words he’s left with us.

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:13-14 NIV

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Psalms 145: 18 NIV

I knew the waitress would return with my warm and spicy enchiladas. My son knew I would drive back to the school and pick him up in the car rider line at eleven-thirty every day. And we know God’s promise to us in four simple words—I will come back.

Have hope.

Four words.

“I will come back.”

Can hope change your life? If you believe those four simple words, your life is changed forever.

Feel like celebrating? Me too. How about a basket of chips-n-salsa?