Hope Can Set You Free

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2011)

We bought a piece of land. It was embarrassingly overgrown in weeds. It had trash deposited on it. We used swingblades to chop through the growth to get down to the ground.
One day as I was swinging, a man walking down the road said, "You bought a bunch of weeds." It was true, but they were my bunch of weeds. I kept working. It's like there was nothing beautiful to see, but I saw it - I could see beauty, when there was no beauty there to see; and, yet, there was beauty there to see, it just was unseen to most eyes - but it was there.
As spring came, something else came - daffodils. They were everywhere; vibrant yellow on green stems; life amongst death; beauty amongst ruin. Nature itself was saying there is hope; life was springing back with death and ruin its backdrop.
Chickweed flourished everywhere; lush green, much greener than grass. The ground was a blanket of green; the lushest weed that had ever brought such pleasure to my eye. It flourishes in the spring, it dies out in the summer, and reappears in the fall. Its like waiting for a friend to come, then go, only to come again.
"The Shawshank Redemption" reminded me of such hope and life amongst despair and death. Of good and evil, with awfulness many times seeking to overcome goodness and put it out, only to see goodness, even if brought to death, shine through the darkness.
A tagline for this movie says, "Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free." Brooks hanged himself; Red embraced hope. I thought of Revelation 21:8 where it says, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." The first kind of person mentioned is the fearful. I thought of Brooks, he had a chance at life - but, he chose death. He was fearful.
There will be those who enter (chose) eternal death because they were fearful. The prison doors have been opened, they are told they can have liberty and freedom, and yet, like Brooks, fear holds them prisoners to death; they seal their own death, they enter eternal death.
Red came to the same place as Brooks, yet, he made a different decision; he chose the hope set before him.
Red, along with Andy, enjoyed their paradise. They chose to hope, and to follow that hope; that hope led them into life.
As for our land, that "bunch of weeds" to the man walking by, it too has followed hope into life. People now say, "You sure got it looking good." We even had a land speculator contact us - wanting to buy our land.
She ain't for sale. I may not be able to fully accomplish my hope on that land in my lifetime - but, I can hope. Every day, I can hope. Every spring, I can see the daffodils come back after winter. I can see the lush green chickweed come and go and come again.
Andy and Red had a boat and the Pacific Ocean.
A plastic Wal-mart chair under the shade of the trees, with the seemingly ever-present, gentle breeze is my Pacific Ocean.
Hope can set you free.