Hope: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen or want something to happen or be the case. (taken from Google online dictionary)
What are you hoping for? Who or what do you put your hope in?
I heard somewhere that the absence of hope equals despair. If you have no hope, there is no point. Why do anything? There is no purpose. It’s hard just to get out of bed.
Have you ever been in that space where hope slid away into nothingness and life had a hollow feel to it? The emptiness was an abyss that mocked you. Definitely not in the fuzzy warm feeling category! Some people might not get it if they’ve never been there or they might think you’re lazy or selfish.
Let them judge. I think it’s something we all experience in some form or another. We have to lose our hope to find it. To begin to understand it and own it. I know you’ve heard that from someone, somewhere. I’m just starting to realize the implications of that statement.
Some people know their hope from day one. But for others of us, it’s a journey (sometimes a really long road trip) to finding our hope. I’m not sure it ever finishes. It’s no surprise that our hope, is really Someone. Getting to know Him, the author of our
souls and trust Him, that’s the journey and it doesn’t happen overnight.
Like any good relationship, it’s going to take some time. Some travel time along the high points of life or the mudslides that trip us up and threaten to drown us, that binds us together. It’s how all friendships are moulded and are shaped over the years. Those friendships that stick to us through thick and thin. Why do we think our relationship with Jesus would be any different? Why do we treat it so foreignly?
We try to replace Him with other relationships in our lives. Spouses, BFF’s and the opinion, praise and thoughts of other people. We switch out Him, for houses,careers, promotions and things. These things can add to hope, but they are not the main Hope.
If we push Him away, there’s gonna be a void. Without God there is no purpose or hope to our lives. We live out a selfish existence that ends in meaninglessness. What was it all for? With God as our Hope, life takes on purpose. I’m just starting to really understand that as well. I guess there’s just a little too much pride rolling around in this head. There’s still a part of me that thinks I can get along just fine without Him, thank you very much.
But what if you feel like He’s let you down? Abandoned you. Hope fled out the door along trust. Unfortunately in my experience, there’s no magic solution. It’s a hard journey back. It’s not optional if you want to find Hope. It’s like driving with a child who
is motion sick. You think you’ll never get there and when you do, you can’t get out of the car fast enough. All you want to do is plug your ears, close your eyes and scream. (Not that I’m talking from experience or anything!)
However God in his grace and wisdom, He lets us find our way. I’m not promoting we ditch our hope or our trust just because. Certainly not. But if we find ourselves on this particular road, I believe He understands that sometimes we have to go on this journey to discover Him. To go into an even deeper relationship with Him. Isn’t it the people in our lives, who wisely gave us the long leash, the grace and time, to search and find the answers to our questions, that we sing the praises of? Aren’t they the people we respect and love the most? These people are reflections of God’s grace, love and wisdom. He allows these detours because it’s part of the refining process for some of us. He knows that when we come out the other side, we’re going to be golden. Shiny. Bright. Reflecting His glory. Singing Hope.
What are you hoping for? What kind of hope journey are you on? Love to hear your stories.