“What is saving your life right now?”

Stephen asks me yesterday at church, and I say the first three things that come to mind:

“Coldplay. Rohr. Hope.”

The first two come and go — they’ll be different next month — but the third one has been close to my heart for a while:

“For we are saved by hope…” 

The words are as true and life-saving today as they were when the Apostle Paul scribbled them two thousand years ago.

And when there’s nothing else left, hope remains. Irrational yet true. Fragile yet resilient. Hope.

“… but hope that is seen is not hope. If a person sees what they hope for, why would they need to hope? But we hope for what we do not see, and so wait patiently for it.”

I wish that part didn’t feel quite so real. Unseen hope is exhausting. It’s terrifying. It’s heartbreaking – every single day. But it remains.

This hope is an anchor for our souls. And oh, how my soul needs an anchor.

So after church yesterday — after hearing of hope yet again, after the wine and bread that are the Body of Christ broken for me — I drove to a tattoo shop and rolled up my sleeve so that I don’t forget:

I was saved by hope. 

I am saved by hope.

I will be saved by hope. 

[ design by me. ink by nick shams. ]

 

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If you want to be reminded of hope too, I put this design on a shirt for you.

 (It’s cheaper and less painful than a tattoo. )