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Try Hope

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As far as semantics, the english language could use a few more words to describe what we are talking about when we say hope.  There is hope, as in, wish.  I hope I get the job.  I hope this illness does not last long.  There is hope as in, confident expectation.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3 ESV).  A wish is an idea you hope becomes a reality, a confident expectation is a reality, but because we are bound by time, it is not reality for us yet.  

 

Christians experience both types of hope.  Christ is our hope, but we are not exempt from hoping additionally for lesser things.  Sometimes our hopes are realized, sometimes they are not. When hope for lesser things is lost, Christ remains.  All has not been lost, indeed the most important thing has not been lost. Still, a loss is a loss, an emptiness of some sort remains.  

 

Hoping in something is different than hoping for something.  I hope in one thing, the forgiveness and salvation that is mine in Christ.  I hope for many other things, friendships, good health, life to go the way I want it to go.  When these hopes are threatened or lost, I am disappointed, sometimes heart broken.  I have lost a measure of hope. I need to see that on the other side of loss or disappointment there is always more hope.  More hope in Christ, the hope that cannot be shaken even though it hides at times under the rubble of lesser dreams shattered.  And it would not hurt to have something to hope for, the possibility of something that would make my heart smile this side of Heaven.  

 

Sometimes even if nothing changes circumstantially, perspectives or desires change and hope emerges.   Still, it is not as simple as telling someone who has lost hope to view things differently. While perspective cuts through false realities and fosters gratitude, someone who has lost hope needs more than a reality check, they need hope to be a reality for them.  It is not our job to create this reality, for ourselves, for others.  We are only human, created not to create hope, but to find it. Some days hope is easy to find, some days we have to reach long and hard to get a hold of it.  On the hard days we would do well to allow ourselves to grieve what we hope for (but may lose) and fix our hearts more firmly on Who we hope in, One who has promised never to leave or forsake us.  

 

Suppose I cut my thumb slicing strawberries for strawberry pie.  While the thought of strawberry pie gives me hope of pleasure to come, I may find it hard to grab hold of this hope with the unaddressed pain of my wound shouting for attention.  Properly addressing the pain and disappointment we experience as Christians frees us up to anticipate the greater hope we have which cannot be shaken. We can celebrate lesser hope found and grieve lesser hope lost, while clinging to the greater hope that never waivers.  Let’s encourage each other to hope. To wait expectantly. To live in the waiting. It is true that most people feel down from time to time. It is also true that most people do not stay there. Of all the things you try to get out of a slump, try hope. Nothing to lose, everything to gain.  Where there is life, it is never too late to hope for hope.  

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 “For in this hope we are saved.  Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”       Romans 8:24-25

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