Rescued by a Stick with HOPE at the Other End

When was the last time you met someone who changed your life? Someone who God would use to make a massive difference in your life. Or someone who would give you the tools to change you for a lifetime.

This life-changing event was huge and straightforward. I was in a place where I felt I didn’t measure up to others. I was drowning in what seemed like sinking sand.

You can’t breathe in mud just like you can’t breathe underwater. You can’t find your way in the sinking sand because you can’t see. You are stuck until someone hands you a stick to hold onto—a stick with HOPE at the other end.

A stick with Hope at the other end.

I didn’t realize how lost I was and how tormented I was feeling. Trying to be like others. It will suffocate you, and eventually, your spirit starts to fade. But God sent me a stick with Hope at the other end.

I didn’t feel I had to measure up to all women. But there were a few that turned my life upside down. I wanted to be like them. They looked like they had it all together. Or, at least, I thought so. But, unfortunately, they were disfigured by my perception. And that perception caused me problems. The bottom line was that I was the only one who needed a change of heart. And God is able!

It wasn’t the person, but it was the message that God would have her teach me.

HOPE: The Message of the Stick

When was the last time you met someone who changed your life? Someone who God would use to make a massive difference in your life. Or someone who would teach you a different way to view people.

My famous line was, “I don’t like People.”

I didn’t realize how fast I was sinking. I was choking, trying to be like someone else. I was suffocating, and my spirit was fading away. After all, God only created one of me, and I was destroying that one. But God sent me a stick with Hope at the other end.

I met the woman with the message in an antique store. My girlfriend and I tried on hats and other items in the store. And the woman with the message was with her friend. We all laughed and talked as we tried on different things in the store. As we were leaving, I had no idea that the woman with the message would impact my life. She would give me a stick with Hope at the other end.

We talked over the phone, and then I met with her. I continued to meet with her for several weeks. But, of course, there were tears of anguish, and she was genuine. God-sent messengers who want the best for you and can see that you have a future and encourage that future.

I always thought my communication skills needed improvement. But this message was new. It teaches how everyone has at least one communication style. I learned what those styles looked like and how they function together.

As I learned more about my communication style, I grew more comfortable and amazed at the same time. So I studied this concept and found that Christ-centered Love results from these styles working in harmony. This discovery started me on a new journey, a life-changing journey. A journey that would last a lifetime.

She encouraged me to draw my feelings instead of writing. The writing was easier for me. But I managed to draw the pictures she requested and started to like drawing. Like a kid, I put mine on the refrigerator.

Learning a new way to understand and accept people for who they are was a huge lesson. But understanding who I am and what I can become was immeasurable. God’s creation of humans is incredible!

My heart changed, and how I once felt about myself and others was changing. I didn’t feel lacking anymore. We are all broken people trying to make it in a sinful, sometimes gruesome world. But God is able!

Holding On To HOPE

With the HOPE I found, I began to make changes in my life, which strengthened me to move forward with life and ministry. As a result, my confidence grew more and more. What I learned later became part of the Darlene J. Harris Speaking From the Heart Ministry.

The other person at the end of the stick gave me more than I could ever repay. She has since gone to be with the Lord, and I’m forever thankful to God for the deposit she made in my life. My Hope is that I want to make a difference in the lives of others. This is the most I can do after being rescued by a stick with Hope on the other end!

Romans 5: 3-5 

This doesn’t mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys—we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us. Already we have some experience of the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%205&version=PHILLIPS

One of my favorite songs-

My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

Author: Edward Mote

Mote, Edward, was born in Upper Thames Street, London, Jan. 21, 1797.

For the last 26 years of his life, he was pastor at Horsham, Sussex, where he died Nov. 13, 1874.