Hope is powerful. But hope requires work.

We can hope for something different. We can pray for something better. We can believe that tomorrow can be different from today. But at some point, we have to participate in our own hope.

Pain can be a seed.

We don't always get to choose what happens to us. We don't choose every loss, disappointment, rejection, or obstacle. But we do get to decide what we are going to do with what happened.

Are we going to let the pain bury us?

Or are we going to plant it?

Yesterday, I fell.

Literally.

And let me tell you — it sucked.

I was embarrassed. I had to pull myself up. And, because life apparently has a sense of humor, the whole thing was caught on the Ring camera. So maybe one day I'll open social media and discover that I've gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

It is what it is.

I got up.

I didn't stay there and analyze the fall. I didn't let embarrassment keep me on the ground. I made myself get up, and I kept going.

And it reminded me of something:

Don't be afraid to fall.

We all fall.

Sometimes we fall physically.

Sometimes we fall mentally.

Sometimes we fall emotionally.

And sometimes we even fall spiritually.

The fall may hurt. It may embarrass you. It may shake your confidence. It may make you wonder whether you have enough strength left to pull yourself back up.

But falling does not mean you have failed.

Get up.

Even if you have to pull yourself up.

Even if you don't look graceful doing it.

Even if somebody saw you fall.

Even if the damn Ring camera caught the whole thing.

Get up.

Hope isn't pretending the fall didn't hurt. Hope is believing that the ground doesn't have to become your permanent address.

There have been times in my life when getting up was much harder than yesterday's physical fall. There have been moments when pain, loss, fear, and disappointment could have convinced me to stop.

But I keep coming back to the same question:

What am I going to do with what happened to me?

I can sit in the pain, or I can lead from it.

I can allow it to tell me who I am, or I can decide what I will become because I survived it.

Faith matters deeply to me. But faith is not passive.

Faith without works is dead.

I can pray. I can believe. I can hope. But then I have to move.

Sometimes that movement is a huge leap forward.

And sometimes it is simply pulling yourself off the ground.

Both count.

Never let anybody take your hope.

And when that discouraging voice inside you says, You can't do this. You're too tired. You've fallen too many times. Just stay down, answer it:

You don't control me.

Hope.

Hope.

Hope.

Protect it.

Feed it.

Work for it.

And when you fall — and at some point, we all will — remember:

The fall is not the end of your story.

Get up.

Keep going.

It's not if. It's how.

LIVE. DON'T JUST EXIST.