Dare to Hope

I’ve just finished Raynor Winn’s ‘The Salt Path’.

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home and livelihood is taken away. With nothing left, almost no money for food or shelter, carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they walk the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path, from Minehead in Somerset, via Devon and Cornwall to Poole in Dorset

This couple in their 50s, whose world is collapsing around them, dare to hope that there’s a future for them. Their walk becomes a remarkable journey of regeneration and redemption, where the love is constant and enduring, values are realigned, and new purpose is discovered.

Yesterday I read the remarkable story of Glenn Cunninham. Glenn was born in Kansas in 1909. When he was seven there was an explosion at his school and he suffered severe burns. He was crippled and doctors said he would never walk again.

Glenn dared to hope, not only that he would walk again but that he would run. Through his determination, despite constant pain, he became one of the greatest middle distance athletes of the 1930s.

Running the 1500 metres Glenn was 4th in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics and won the silver medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1934 he broke the world record for a mile…  

Glenn went on to serve in the U.S. Navy, taught athletics and physical education and set up projects caring for underprivileged children. 

This morning I read Jeremiah’s words in Lamentations 3: ‘The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.’

Raynor, Moth, Glenn, Jeremiah all dared to hope… coming through suffering to security… against the odds.