Earlier today on Bellshill Salvation Army Band’s Facebook page I shared the devotions I shared at our band practice last Wednesday evening. I’d like to share those devotions with you tonight.
There’s a quote I stumbled across recently, that has stayed with me – The author is unknown:
It’s not one of those quotes that you’d likely find printed on a a mug in a gift shop, but it is one that feels very true, and very honest. It names something we all recognise: the stubborn, almost unreasonable way hope keeps rising in us, even when circumstances tell us it shouldn’t.
Hope is rarely tidy. It doesn’t always arrive with trumpets or certainty. More often, it shows up quietly — in the middle of an ordinary day, or when we’re struggling to pray. It’s the kind of hope that doesn’t deny reality but insists that reality isn’t the whole story.
I’m sure we can all think about the times in our lives when hope surprised us. Maybe it was after a setback, a disappointment, or a time when you felt spiritually flat. Maybe it was when you were sure you’d run out of strength, maybe given up on yourself, and still something in you — something Godgiven — nudged you to take one more step.
That is the hope that quote speaks of. Not the polished kind, but the gritty, gracesoaked kind of hope that grows, despite the odds.
Scripture is full of people who hoped “against all logic.” Abraham, who believed God’s promise long before it made sense. Hannah, who prayed through years of heartbreak. The disciples, who dared to believe again after the darkest time the world had ever known, when Christ was crucified. Their hope wasn’t naïve. It was anchored.
There’s a courage in choosing hope – It’s the courage of showing up again. Trying to utter a prayer again. Trying again. Believing that God is still at work even when it might feel he’s deserted us.
Maybe that’s the invitation for us today: To keep hoping, not because the odds are in our favour, but because God is.
If you’re in a season where hope feels fragile, let this little quote be a reminder that hope doesn’t need perfect conditions to grow. It just needs a heart willing to hold on.
Sometimes, against all odds, against all logic… we still hope.
And maybe that’s where faith begins.
The Distinct Dot 