It Might Be Hope

At 2:30 Friday morning, I woke up, turned on my light, went into the bathroom, washed my face, and almost stepped into the shower. I thought it was 5:30, not 2:30, and I was ready to go. A second look at the clock reminded me that I had at least three more hours of sleep ahead of me. That's how excited I was for Friday night's Sara Groves concert.

I love Sara Groves. That's no secret. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I adore her music and how I want to be her best friend. I first heard about her at the start of my junior year at Mount Mercy. Christina had been to a concert that summer in Minnesota, and recommended I check her out. She knew I'd like her. I went to the Family Bookstore on Collins Road, birthday money in hand, and listened to a demo. All I had to hear was the first line of the first song of All Right Here and I was hooked: "It's been a hard year, but I'm climbing out of the rubble." It was so true. It had been a hard year, and the year that followed was even harder. That CD meant a lot to me at that time.

I could write volumes of specific ways that specific songs have affected my life at specific times. If I wrote music, it would sound like hers- that's how closely aligned it is to my heart.

The first summer I lived in Omaha I heard of a concert of hers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was before I knew anyone here, and I decided there was no good reason for me not to make the trek. So that Friday in July, after work, I drove the two and a half hours to Sioux Falls, enjoyed an amazing show, and drove home again. It was a good trip, but a bit lonely. Thus, on Friday I was excited that Charlotte and Matt joined me for the journey to Lincoln to hear her perform once again.

And I wasn't disappointed. It felt like an evening with an old friend as she shared her stories and sung her songs. It was one of those experiences that once again confirmed everything that I believe in my heart of hearts. She sang many new songs, including the one I quoted in my New Year's post, and it gave me goosebumps. "Hope has a way of turning its face to you, just when you least expect it." And as I sat there with these friends, I was just so moved again at how true that has been in my life. I've just been so blessed by the ways God has been working in my life over the past year. A year ago I was begging to leave, and now I have no intentions of going anywhere.

Hope simply seems so much more real to me. It's moved beyond basic lip service, to being a true force in my life that I can actually stand on. When my typical insecurities plague me, I'm so much less prone to give into them than I once was. I haven't been allowing myself to feel so easily defeated anymore. When these thoughts start to confront me, I feel better equipped to push them aside and focus on the truth that God has a hold of me, and He's not going to let me go.

The concert challenged me to take this renewed hope, this renewed energy, this renewed joy, and use it to more actively add to the beauty around me. As Sara said, this faith is all about telling a better story with our lives. It's a story about hope.