If you’re like me you’ve just experienced the craziest year of your life. Everyone I know has suffered some kind of loss. We have all lost the sense of freedom we experienced in our daily lives pre 2020. Some have lost faith in their leaders and government while others have lost jobs and business. Tragically, many have lost family and loved ones, or even their own lives. Along with these profound losses it is not surprising that a vast number have also lost hope. The kind of hope that assures us that our losses are not in vain; that there will be a brighter tomorrow and that everything will ultimately be OK!  So what does one do when hope is lost?  How do we regain it?  Is hope even real and if so where does it come from, and how do we make sure we don’t lose it again? These are questions I’ve wrestled with and valid questions I think we have all struggled with this past year.  If these last 12 months have taught us anything, it’s this – we are all hurting people living in a hurting world, and we need real hope.

The purpose of launching my new blog is to be a ‘Bridge Guide’ to those who have lost hope, or whose hope is waning in the midst of darkness and confusion. Not long ago I was one of those hurting people who could not find any peace in this world no matter what I did or where I looked. Hope was unattainable, and despair was my perpetual state of mind. So for those of you out there – I can relate; I know the feeling. I understand the toll hopelessness takes on one’s body, mind and soul. It’s heavy and carrying it is exhausting. You feel weak as you move throughout the day and your mind aches with the same resounding question, “Will things ever get better?”

I understand that angst.  I also long for things to get better.  But what if they don’t. Can I still be hopeful when the world seems hopeless? Can I translate that hope into peace, joy, and contentment regardless of my circumstances, as I work towards building a better tomorrow?  The answer is Yes! This response is only possible because hope is not dependent on external or personal circumstances. Hope comes from within and is sourced in that mysterious and awesome connection we share with our Creator. In other words, hope is not something we manufacturer in our own minds, rather it is a gift that stems from our relationship with God himself. At the end of the day, there is no hope without God, as He is the God of all hope.

My next observation is not a condemnation. Rather it’s an insight I want to share to help give hope to others. Many have lost their hope in 2020 because it was misplaced to begin with. When our hope is founded on the temporal things of this world (money, possessions, politics, careers, reputations, etc.), our lives are on shaky ground at best. Misplaced hope is fleeting and can never substitute for the real hope that lasts. So how do we exchange misplaced hope for the real thing? The answer begins with a realization and a journey back home.

My journey started back in January 2010. After 45 years of possessing misplaced hope, God called me back home to discover real hope. He took me on a journey leading from reliance on this world (the Wasteland) to communion with Him in our original paradise abode (the Garden). To cross the chasm separating the Wasteland and the Garden, God, who I now affectionately call Papa, would introduce me to the ’Bridge of Brokenness’. It was brokenness that would serve as the path from the Wasteland to the Garden; and it will also lead you in your crossing to find real hope.

You might ask the question; why would an ordinary kid raised in New Jersey who grew up to be an ordinary man living in Georgia, be chosen to be a bridge guide to others? Why would God choose this ordinary man to document his journey from the Wasteland to the Garden? I’m not entirely sure, but maybe it’s because God uses ordinary people to reveal extraordinary things. 

For most of my life, I was a fearful, negative, pessimistic, hopeless, and self-centered, “It’s all about me” kind of dude. Without doubt, my hope was solely placed on the things of this world and I wore every mask possible to hide my fear and hopelessness from others. I wanted people to believe I had it all together and that I could make it big. But I always took the “easy way” out, quitting just about every job I had when things got tough and even becoming a drug dealer in college and throughout my twenties to make a few bucks. Even worse, I lost what could have been a family of my own to poor judgement, abortion and suicide. The fact that my dad passed away when I was twenty-three didn’t help the matter. I felt like I had no one left to talk to or get advice from. My heart was broken and I felt more alone than ever. I was hopeless.  

In reality, even as a young child, I knew something was not right. There was just something wrong about this world that I could not put into words. It just didn’t feel like home, and with that came a sense of not belonging and the desire to find a place where I did. To be honest, I believe that sentiment represents the majority of people. Now there are some who love this world and want to call it home, but that truly breaks my heart because that mindset will ultimately lead to disappointment on an eternal scale. For some the attraction of this world with all of its false promises is just simply too hard to resist. But if you are like me, you have a deep sense that you were made for more and that the path to better exist.

Looking back at 2020 I believe just about everyone can say without hesitation, “This world is in trouble!” and it is. It is loaded with difficulties, problems, disorder and distress. So I say if the world is in trouble, why place your hope in it? I think Jesus’ command to “be in the world but not be of the world” is relevant to us now more than ever. So if that is you, if your eyes have been opened from all the chaos of 2020 and hopelessness has wreaked havoc on your soul, it might just be time to stop placing your hope in the world, and pick up your cross and head back home to the Garden and communion with God.

You don’t have to wait for eternity. It is possible to see and experience the Garden Kingdom of God here on earth. Don’t you want that?!!! To know no matter what happens in this world it will be ‘well with your soul’! That was the desire of my heart ever since I can remember. All I ever wanted from life was to know hope, and now I have found it. And I want that for you as well. So let me be your personal ‘Bridge guide’ as you take your own journey from the Wasteland to the Garden in the quest to find real hope and the peace that surpasses all understanding.  I promise it will be the journey of a lifetime – now and forever!

Dario L. Perla