Notice here that the prophet not only exhorts us to be hopeful about God’s promises but to be rooted in God as our life source. In other words, to go from saying, “I hope you are right” to saying, “You are my hope!” The latter is a testimony of hope and commitment that reverberates through the story of struggle and triumph in the lives of Black people across the globe.

In America, despite the chains of slavery, the violence of lynching, the humiliation of Jim Crow, the ostracism of segregation, the bitterness of discrimination, and the poverty of joblessness, separate and unequal schools and unequal pay, African Americans have proved to be remarkably resilient. Someone once said that life is not so much what happens to you but what you do with what happens to you!

Being blessed or cursed has little to do with your circumstance but with what you do with those circumstance. The challenges of today can be the rocks that crush your spirit or the building blocks toward a brighter future. You must decide which it will be. If you are rooted in faith ~ in God ~ like a tree planted beside the waters, your passion for justice will not waiver and your hope in victory will not be diminished.