Hope

Sometimes, it is all that we have to keep us going.


HOPE.


It is one of those things that many lose, much like their souls, when life becomes overwhelming with sickness, death, and the inability to care for yourself and others as you feel you should be.


Young adults many times get lost without hope. These are trying times with peer pressure and the reality that they have to let go of mommy and daddy’s hands, to step into a world of uncertainty that they are in no ways prepared for. They can only HOPE without prayer.


Meanwhile, adults struggle with the hope of being able to keep their household together, trying to either keep or build a relationship, educating themselves for a better job or to maintain their current, the joys and headaches of raising children, maintaining good health, and losing loved ones throughout. HOPE is often what gets us out of bed.


However, HOPE without grace and prayer is weak.


You can HOPE whatever you want, but if it is not preceded by a prayer of sincerity and proceeded by a prayer of thanks, your asks and desires may never come to be.


I can remember the first time going to Community of Hope church. I was not in a good head space and many changes had started taking place in my life. New job, back in the city, new car, new residence. I felt all that was missing at this point was a new church home.


I am one of those people raised in a Christian background, growing up questioning many things of the world, of the Bible, but never once have I questioned God.


While He wears many hats and called by many names, too often we get caught up in who has the ‘right’ religion. Just get the message and call on Him. He answers.


But anyway, I remember walking into COH, full of uncertainty, as I have not been pleased by the operations of many churches lately, no offense to any.


But as displaced as I was, as hectic as my life had been at the time, losing many loved ones for reasons far beyond my own understanding, I sat listening and watching and absorbing the atmosphere at COH. I began to get more and more relaxed as I looked around and saw people who dressed like me, who walked like me, and who talked like me.


I found HOPE.


At the beginning of service, I about lost my mind when I heard two of the most anointed voices I’ve ever heard in a church - Brittney Wright and Halima Peru. My immediate thought was, “OMG, I would love to sing a song with them.”


All who know me, know that I am a sucker for music, no matter the flavor.


Their voices shook my soul and woke me up.


And even after before that, I heard the GoGo music and thought this was such a unique way of bringing together those in need of spirituality, with the very music of the city.


I had no idea what to expect next. Then, Pastor Tony Lee, stood up in the pulpit and began speaking. It was merely the delivery, the timing, the words I needed and the way I needed it broken down in a way of today’s hardships.


I found this place of HOPE to be DOPE!


And while many people cannot get with the concept of the “un”traditional way of church, I find that it is the only way to reach the masses and give them HOPE as well.


I would just like to say to everyone at Community of Hope Church of Temple Hills, Maryland...


Thank you for being you. Thank you for planting yourself in such a place that I found you. When I found you, I found myself again, I found inspiration to sing again, to write again. I found HOPE!


If you are not a believer, I encourage you to try it. I am not a promoter of any one religion, but I can promise you that spirituality is the only way to overcome the stresses of life — not drugs or alcohol, as these things are only pacifiers in our mouths, prolonging a more permanent solution.


-DoGood