Good Words for Today: October 5

When my father was dying, I received a phone call from my mother saying that we should come quickly to the hospital. That meant flying to a distant city to see him one last time. We packed a few things and hopped in the car to go to the airport. It was a Sunday afternoon and the streets were almost deserted. On our way, we passed by a billboard sponsored by a brokerage house with a digital sign that recorded the current change in the stock market. Because it was the weekend, there was nothing to report. The sign read +0.00. Plus Zero. A thousand times I would pass that sign by and think nothing of it. But that day the image stuck in my mind. I was on my way to my father’s deathbed to say goodbye. Humanly speaking, there was no hope at all. But to live to is hope, and I prayed that somehow my father might be spared. It was not to be, but out of the sorrow of those days I learned a great lesson. When hope is gone, life is gone. To hope is to believe in God in spite of what you see around you. It is to live in Plus Zero territory. Zero is what life often gives us. The Plus is what we have in God.

October 5, 2024