A Heart Full of Hope

My heart is so full today.

Around two years ago I started praying about volunteering to coach soccer at Woodlawn High School.

I took a leap of faith and did it.

I had a senior on my team that I saw so much potential in. I knew that God had greater plans for him than what he was living in.

By the end of his senior year, he had an opportunity to take a scholarship to Samford to study dance and theatre.

Hogan and I reached out to him over the summer to see if he was getting excited. Things had fallen through. He didn't have the ACT score to get in.

My heart hurt like no other. I knew I couldn't just sit there. I had to help.

Hogan and I started a friendship with him. A friendship outside of the soccer field.

I know so many people in the church so I reached out to others. Someone from our church blessed him with a job at a local restaurant here. He still has that job - a year later.

I learned that if he raised his ACT score, he would have his chance back to get into Samford. I signed him up for the test.

I reached out to others again. I was given an ACT review book which I gave to him to use. Our friend Chris tutored him in Math. He studied. We prayed. He took the test. And he went down in his score.

Our hearts sank. There was no way this was the end of his path. God had more.

So we signed him up again. He continued to study. We continued to pray. He took the test again.

I just received an email today from another lady in his life who is helping him in an enormous way. She actually found and is the voice getting him this full ride. Among many other things.

She told me he is in. He will start at Samford this fall. His last score was high enough to get in.

I can't stop smiling. I can't stop tearing up. I can't stop thanking Jesus.

This young man has been through so much. He's still going through it. The details aren't necessary. But God made a better way for him. He is so faithful. He is so amazing. He uses us to bless others. We are his vessels.

My heart is overwhelmed right now. It's so full of joy and excitement for this young man. It's so full of awe and gratitude towards our Jesus. It's so full of hope.

I started and finished a book on my plane ride home from Arizona yesterday. You know it's good when it goes that fast. The book was Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell.

In the book, he states, "Ultimately our gift to the world around us is hope. Not blind hope that pretends everything is fine and refuses to acknowledge how things are. But the kind of hope that comes from staring pain and suffering right in the eyes and refusing to believe that this is all there is."

I love that. My heart is so full of that hope.