Hope

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Romans 15:4 NIV

 

Last week we talked about fear.  What almost always follows fear, HOPE!

Hope and Faith go hand in hand.  When you have faith you are sure to have hope.  And when you have hope you will almost always have to have a little faith to really see your hope come to light.  

What is hope?

Webster’s dictionary describes it as, “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”

I think that it is having faith.  Hope is knowing that God has it all under control and he is using the current situation (good or bad) to further his will and to make us better people.  

Jacob had to have hope when his brothers sold him into slavery.  David had to have hope when he faced Goliath and later on when Saul came after him.  Jonah had to have hope when they threw him over the side of the boat.  The disciples had to have Hope as they crucified Jesus.  

The bible is filled with hope. In fact, every single story throughout the bible has Hope in it.  

Right now I’d like for you to take a moment and listen to the song, “Confidence” by Sanctus Real

In the song it says, “I’m not a warrior, I’m too afraid to lose, I feel unqualified for what you’re calling me to, But Lord with your strength I’ve got no excuse.’Cause broken people are exactly who you use.”

Then it jumps into the chorus.

So give me faith like Daniel in the lion’s den,

Give me hope like Moses in the wilderness

Give me a heart like David, Lord be my defense

So I can face my giants with confidence

The song goes on to talk about some of the trials that have been faced by people of the bible.  

You might not realize it but you and I are facing some of the same trails today. 

In a way, our faith is tried.  It has become almost unheard of for people to talk about their faith in public, and especially not at work.  Don’t even try to bring up your faith in a school, there will surely be hell to pay if you do that.  

Our hearts are being tried every day as we see what the “twisted” media shows us what is happening around the world. 

And our hope is being tried every day by Satan as he tries to get us to doubt our belief in God and his creation.  Through “Science.”  Yet for every scientific discovery that shows how this could have happened, God fires back with how it really happened.  

The whole point to this is that Hope is a major part of our lives and it involves our Faith and our Hearts. 

Prayer

Lord God, we come to you today to say thank you.  Thank you for giving us HOPE.  Thank you for helping us to see how our faith can make a difference.  God, we pray that you would give us the strength to show our faith in every aspect of our lives.  We pray that you will help us to see hope in every situation we are in. No matter where we are or how dark it might seem, it helps us to see the light of hope that guides us to the truth.  God, we are so grateful for everything that you have done for us and everything that you will do for us.  And God we pray that you will give us faith like Daniel in the lion’s den, Give us hope like Moses in the wilderness. Give us a heart like David, Lord be our defense so we can face our giants with confidence.

Amen

Will you pray with us?

Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation

All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel

For all military personal serving our country and their families

Those in Leadership positions throughout the world

Prayer

Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

Amen

A Little More

 The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

My smile immediately vanished.

I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

They gave me the details.

My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

so……

I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

Well……..

After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

But my team went to work!

Guess what????

We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

Here’s the point of all this.

When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

Dan Greer