Reasons to Hope: An Open Door

By Root & Vine
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Date Published: May 24, 2021

“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” These words of Jesus echo across time with countless hopes attached to them. To dare believe, we assume responsibility to be the change we wish to see in the world, to step up and be as Christ was, to open doors, give what is needed, provide direction for those who are lost.

We pray along with Diane Ackerman’“School Prayer.”

…I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.
I will honor all life
—wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell—on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.

Ask, Seek, Knock

Once, a door was opened to me at a time when I really needed a place to go and that door was in a little house by the train tracks in Franklin, Tennessee. I had no idea what crossing that threshold would come to mean for me, but I found a welcoming place with kind-hearted people who were living as sons and daughters of God in the world. They were loving their neighbors as themselves in the quietest, most humble of ways. This place was Porter’s Call and the porter who first opened the door, Al Andrews, would open doors for many to enter. On the other side of that door was the courage we needed to ask and receive, to seek, and to find ourselves in the process.

When I think of hope, I think of all the things we go through to get to it, of all the things we endure to clarify it, of all the things we face to finally find it. Having people around us on our journey toward hope is absolutely essential. And so today, as I anticipate a joyous and very real conversation with my former therapist and dear friend Al, I am grateful for the community that he dared call into existence, the door he opened and the promise fulfilled — hope does not disappoint.

We also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5

The porters of Porter’s Call. Photo: porterscall.com

Join us today, May 24 at 3pm ET on Instagram Live for a conversation on hope with Al Andrews. To learn more about Al and how he’s created “a place where artists can find counsel, support, and encouragement, specifically attuned to their unique profession,” all at no cost, no questions asked, read our earlier interview, An Evening of Stories, a Lifetime of Healing with Al Andrews on Root & Vine.