Let hope interrupt your story.

For a moment, won’t you slow down and stay awhile. 

I’d like to share this with you.

I am alive and full of wonder and questions and a breakfast burrito from earlier. 

I am me and you are you and I’ve never seen someone quite like you before. 

That sounded a little cheesy didn’t it?

But cheesy things are often true.

And cheese makes everything better - it made the breakfast burrito better and hopefully it does the same for this poem or whatever this is.

I once read on a painted sign hanging from chicken wire in a church kitchen that God don’t make mistakes. 

He don’t. 

He made you and you are not a mistake.
You’ve never been a mistake.
You and I have made mistakes, but we are not a mistake.

His soft and holy hands knitted you together as he sang a song of love.
He picked out your shape and size and skin tone and soul.
He picked out your walk and talk.
He gave you your weird and different and beauty and desires.
He put a heart in your chest and life in your bones and stars in your eyes.
He filled you with love and tapped you on the nose and called you very good.

You. 

He called you very good. 

But I know you have days where you feel far from very good.

I’m just like you, I feel it too. 

There are days when I feel lost and alone, far from home.

There are days when I feel the earth crack beneath my skin and anxiety shake me like a hurricane does a house.

There are days when my past catches up to my present and whispers in my ear all the things I wish I had never done or said or thought or heard.

And there are days when the heaviness tries to steal away my hope, it pulls down the shades and blocks out the sun and the darkness sits on my chest as I feel like I am about to break and bend, but hope says this is not the end. 

Hope interrupts the story and shines a light, reminding me that by grace everything will be alright.

After all, I have been knit together by His soft and holy hands.

Let hope interrupt your story.

Let hope slow you down as you stay awhile. 

Slow down and stay awhile. 

About the Author

Tanner Olson is an author, poet, speaker, and podcaster living in Nashville, Tennessee.

He is the author of I’m All Over the Place, As You Go, Walk A Little Slower, and Continue: Poems and Prayers of Hope.

You can find Tanner Olson’s books on Amazon.

His podcast is The Walk A Little Slower Podcast with Tanner Olson and can be found wherever you listen to podcasts.

Tanner Olson travels around the country sharing poetry, telling stories, and delivering messages of hope.

You can follow Tanner Olson on Instagram (@writtentospeak) and Facebook where you’ll daily find encouraging words of faith and hope.

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