Rejoicing in Hope

 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”-- Romans 15:13 (KJV)

What makes a person successful? A hundred people might give us the same amount of different answers. The path to victory is like a complicated recipe: it can’t be defined by one ingredient (word). “Success” is just as complex. It can signify many things:

• Financial independence
• College education
• Good health
• Business ownership
• Well-adjusted family
• Spiritual awareness

Every prominent person would agree on one necessary characteristic, though: hope. Belief for a better life gets us out of bed in the morning.

Amberley Snyder (born January 29, 1991)

Some information taken from Wikipedia

This persistent rodeo star is the subject of the excellent movie biopic, Walk, Ride Rodeo. By the age of 19, the young lady had competed in several events. She seemed to excel at barrel racing.

In 2010, Ms. Snyder crashed her car. She became paralyzed from the waist down. This setback only made the star more determined. After 18 months, she began to compete again.  She did grueling physical therapy.  The achiever also attached a seat belt to her horse’s saddle.

By 2015, Amberley was ready for America’s biggest rodeo, The American, in Arlington, Texas. She won a fan waver to participate. Her finishing time was 15.3 seconds, only .6 seconds slower than the winning time. Please enjoy the brief video:

Quotes on hope from goodreads.com

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.

" Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.”― Alexandre Dumas (author of Les Miserables and other historical fiction)

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“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”― Pablo Neruda

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“Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.”―Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters

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“There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”― Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968

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“Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.”― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

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“It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars.”―Richard L Evans

My Conclusion

Amberley Snyder didn’t give up. She rides the rodeo circuit as a professional now. This winner is a motivational speaker and a video blogger.  Ms. Snyder is also the author and illustrator of a children’s book entitled, appropriately, Walk, Ride, Rodeo. Oh, by the way, she did her own stunt riding in the film of the same name. We can say that people like Amberley are “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;”-- Romans 12:12 (KJV)

How’s Your Level of Hope?