On average, 20 people a year have jumped to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge since it was completed in 1937.  These individuals had lost all hope.  They had lost hope in themselves, in their future, in their relationships, in their finances, their health, in the promise of life change. Exactly half way across the 9,000 foot span of the bridge, at its highest point of 260 feet above the icy waters of San Francisco Bay, is a bright yellow phone. The large sign above the phone reads “There is hope”. It invites demoralized, discouraged people without hope in this world to “Make the call!”

Perhaps the past couple of years of Covid, riots, hatred, incivility, lies, injustice, inflation, and scandal has eroded your hope in our culture. GOOD! Culture was never designed to be our source of hope.  Instead, our heavenly Father strategically placed His Son into our broken world at Christmas to proclaim, “I am your hope..  Make the call to Me (1Tim 1:1).   

Make the call in prayer to the “Father who according to His great mercy will cause you to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1Pe 1:3). Make the call to fully “put your faith in the hopelaid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel” (Col 1:5). 

Make the call to finally let “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace” (Rom 15:13) that you can’t find anywhere else. 

Make the call to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb 10:23). 

Make the call for His “hope is an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast” (Heb 6:19). 

And if you have made the call then this Christmas become like the Shepherds who told everybody there is hope “in the Child!” (Lk 2:11,17).

 The Focused Living team wishes you a grateful Thanksgiving and a hope filled Christmas!