Hope In Tomorrow

by Debbie Poer

Many years ago, I learned a valuable lesson through an article that was printed in the Discipleship Journal. It was an article titled, “In God’s Waiting Room” by Jim Carpenter. Unfortunately, that is all I know about its publication. Fortunately, it brought to me a good word of hope. 

In his article, Mr. Campbell described a period in his life when difficult situations were very much a part of his reality: his wife was having major health issues and a dear friend was dying of cancer. He described how much of his life was spent in waiting and in that waiting how his faith in God was strengthened and his dependence on God was deepened. He described that period of waiting as being “in God’s waiting room.” 

For my husband Jim and I, the year was 1997. We had experienced the death of our 22-year-old daughter, Krista, our only child. At the same time our last exchange student was about to leave our home. God, in all His faithfulness, had led us on an amazing life journey to that point, but now everything had come to a standstill and all we could think was, “what’s next?” 

Then a pastor friend gave us the article “In God’s Waiting Room” and we realized WE were in God’s waiting room and out of that our hope was reborn. While it was still a time of “what’s next?” it became a of time of waiting filled with hope. I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. (Psalm 40:1) and “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) became even more alive for us. 

So, we waited. We prayed. We healed from hurts. We discovered again and again God’s love and faithfulness to us. And we waited with hope. In that waiting room we lived in hope that the God who had so faithfully led us for so many years would lead us in a new direction of loving Him and loving people. And we learned that God’s waiting room is based on His time, not ours. 

Our period of hoping and waiting covered a timespan of five years. When God had healed and prepared us, he provided the opportunity and opened the way for us to enter into a time of service with TCM. Looking back on those days of waiting I realize if we had not held hope in the days to come and had not waited patiently on God, we may have missed a way of serving in His Kingdom that we had never imagined possible. 

In a recent video call Olga (a refugee from the war in Ukraine) shared with us, “People are not thinking about hope, they are actually living it. Every single day you have to hope that there is tomorrow.” (Interview link below.) As I heard those words, I thought of my own hope journey and how I hadn’t thought about it back then, I had simply lived it and how I must continue living in that way. After all, hope is believing that there is a tomorrow. 

May you be living each day filled with hope, anticipating your tomorrows! 

to see Olga’s full interview click HERE