“Hope is an incredibly powerful and often overlooked psychological force. During the 1950s, Curt Richter, a Denver native, Harvard Graduate and scientist with John Hopkins University, conducted a profound (and by today’s standards incredibly cruel) experiment on rats.

Dr. Richter placed rats into buckets of water and timed their ability to swim. Rats, who are apparently known for their strong swimming skills, lasted an average of 15 minutes before drowning.

However, in a second experiment, Dr. Richter rescued the rats just at the moment when their strength gave out and they began to sink. He would remove them from the tub, dry them off, and give them a short period of rest, allowing their heartrate to return to normal and for muscle fatigue to subside. And then, just as they were dry and rested, Dr. Richter put them back into the water. This time he identified a substantial behavioral change. The rescued rats swam longer than fifteen minutes. In fact, they swam for nearly 60 hours.

Those rats had experienced the change of heart that comes by way of redemption. They had been snatched from certain death and they KNEW that there were powers in play that could rescue them. So when they found themselves once again in the deep water, they also found something else. Their previous panic and desperation was replaced with hope. Their tired muscles, frightened mind, and anxious spirit found a way to continue….to keep moving…to dig a little deeper….to choose to endure.

And so it is with us.”

One of my good friends shared this story in a talk at church, and I related to it deeply. Over the past several years I have had a long stream of medical issues; some minor, some life changing. Each time I go through another one, I have learned more about the most important things in life, and learn to let go of the minutia. I have also learned, challenge upon challenge, what hope really means. I’ll talk a lot more about that as I continue to share my thoughts in the future,

To add to my connection with this story, I will share a really ironic, funny memory. During last fall, on a particularly hot, humid day, a friend stopped by, and caught me working outside. I was a mess, as I usually am when I work in the humidity. She stepped out of her car, took one look at me and said, “You look like a drowned rat!”

You’ll see this theme pop up over and over as I describe the days ahead, and my thoughts as I pass through them. Enjoy.