“Lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”
Hebrews 6:19 NKJV
In the afterglow of Thanksgiving, and in anticipation of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, the four weeks leading up to Christmas are a season of great hope and expectation.
It is only fitting that we launch into the Christmas season by commemorating our gratitude for God’s blessings and giving thanks as a nation.
To “lay hold of hope” we must first be grateful.
This is a foundational principle that will help you tap into all God has for you and wants to do through you.
It is why the psalmist tells us the key to entering the gates of the Kingdom is thanksgiving—and the all-access pass into God’s presence is praise.
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
Psalm 100:4
Gratitude is a choice—and the fruit of it is hope.
Hope is a powerful force that changes the course of lives, communities, and nations. It calls us to action and propels us forward.
The power of hope gives rise to the shapers of history.
Hope is what fueled the dreams of history makers such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Because of a powerful hope, they each dared to craft a new and brighter future for the nations in which they were seeded.
This is what my new book History Maker is all about.
A wanted to provide a blueprint for how ordinary people arise out of obscurity to create extraordinary change in their generation.
What compels some people to tap into the kind of deeper purpose that enables them to maximize their potential to lead change?
Is it a matter of special circumstances surrounding a special kind of person? Or does it have more to do with a type of personality or certain character traits—or is it simply having the courage to act?
Are leaders born or made?
I believe every person is born and called to lead change.
I believe leadership is both a duty and a privilege.
I believe we are each called to exercise our authority to mobilize the resources necessary to translate intention into reality.
Leadership is the exercise of authority.
Authority is the power—or the ability—to marshal the resources needed to achieve a desired result.
Wherever you see a need, you not only have the ability but a mandate to exercise your divine authority to create positive change. This may look like prayer, or faith, or praise, or grace, or even simply hope.
Today, we need voices of hope to inspire, encourage, and call to action.
There is no force greater than hope to mobilize action.
And now more than ever, we need individuals who will carry that hope to those who have lost hope.
More importantly, we need to be willing to do the work within ourselves that will enable us to dream bigger, think more expansively, and conceive of new possibilities—to imagine what has not yet been but could be, and then doggedly believe that it can be.
It is time to start learning what we are truly capable of.
Who were you created and put into the universe to be at this time in history?
Could you be the answer someone is looking for? Are you in possession of a missing piece to a puzzling situation or problem? Could it be found hidden within your soul—that nugget of insight or wisdom or revelation the world so desperately needs?
This quote from a speech given on June 6, 1966 in South Africa at the University of Cape Town’s “Day of Reaffirmation of Academic and Human Freedom” was of great inspiration as I wrote History Maker:
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
―Robert F. Kennedy
Each of us can be a unique center of energy and daring that creates a ripple of hope that turns the tide.
You and I are the carriers of hope that create the currents of change that shape history.
It is my prayer that as you read History Maker, you will stir the waters of your hidden potential until you are able to make those currents become waves.
“There are those who look at things the way they are and ask, “Why?”…I dream of things that never were and ask, “Why not?”
—Robert F. Kennedy