When I came back to Alaska from the country formerly known as the Soviet Union, I had to catch up on a lot of American culture. I’d been gone for a year and a half and had been outside the mainstream even before I left.


It was1993 and I was introduced to a new delicious beverage:


Snapple Ice Tea


I found it in the gas station food marts and particularly enjoyed the Peach Ice tea. Yummy yummy.


Not long after that, Snapple did a series of ads declaring they weren’t trying to be number 1. Coke and Pepsi could have that, but Snapple (at the time) had its sights on being #3.


Not everyone can be number one. Many times, there are uncontested frontrunners. I was thinking about that Snapple commercial as I was reviewing this verse
“Now there abideth faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.”


No doubt, love is what the world needs now. I need love. I am hungry to give and receive love.


But I am at this moment enamored of the other brothers faith and hope. Faith and hope who are holding hands through life, sometimes side by side and other times taking turns on which comes first.


You got to have faith. And sometimes all I can manage is to hope that the faith will come.


That letter that Paul wrote, that’s been passed down and treasured for thousands of years is saying that faith and hope abides. Like a rock that will not be moved, these remain.


I’ll tell you, I need to hang on to that rock. That’s what faith and hope are all about. Faith is seeing something that hasn’t happened yet. And hope is like the seed of faith. If I’m in a spot that’s so unpleasant I might not even have the wherewithal to have faith. Maybe I can only muster hope. I have hope it will grow into faith.

Faith and hope abide too, close up against love. The second and third place may change in any given moment when ranking these three. I agree they go together, and I know I need all three. I’m hoping to get through these hard times.