Hope

I’ve heard it said that you can live 3 hours without shelter (in extreme conditions), 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food, but not a single minute without hope. Then, of course, there’s the ever-famously quoted Scripture about having a “hope as an anchor for our soul.” And the whole, “Faith, hope, and love…but the greatest of these is love.” And while the greatest of these might not be hope, it did make the top three, which has got to be significant.

 

Hope. This topic has been on my mind a lot lately. See, I’m a pretty self-aware person. I know my strengths and weaknesses relatively well. But this whole having hope thing…I’m not sure where to classify it on my list of strengths and weaknesses. And being that I tend to love lists on occasion, this is a conundrum for my order-desiring soul. I often find myself thinking that I have too much hope. I look at life and other people through rose-colored glasses, and translate what I see through my hope-filled heart. I try to find the best in most situations, and often that opens my heart to hurt when I realize (again) that not everybody’s word means as much to them as mine does to me. That their intentions might not be as pure as I imagined them. That they don’t always see things the same way I do. And you know something? It hurts. Every time. It hurts the part of me that wants to believe the best about everyone I meet. The sting of pain…it seems too frequent, sometimes even daily, but still, even in the middle of the pain, I can’t seem to shake the little inkling of hope that resides deep within my soul. That hope that doesn’t go away, no matter how I try to rationalize it.

 

It’s always there.

 

And this all got me thinking. If not for hope, what did Jesus die for? He came to earth as God in flesh, lived 33 years, and chose to go through with allowing his death when he could have chosen in an instant not to. But He had a hope. A hope in knowing that at the end of it all, when He had died and then rose back up from death’s clutches, He would get to offer His hope to those without it. To us. You and I.

 

He chose to hope in us choosing Him and turning from our pain and selfishness and pride into the depth of His grace. He chose to hope…knowing that He would be rejected by many. Knowing that His heart would be broken by those who chose not to accept the gift He offered. The part that stuck out to me when I was thinking of all of this is that His actions did not change, knowing He would be hurt by His very own creation. He chose to go through the pain, knowing it would mean nothing to some people. And in doing so, He became the most vulnerable man to walk the earth. Most of us don’t love like that. We don’t love with a hope of what will come out of the hard stuff. Instead, we try to find all of the negatives to justify why NOT to hope for the best. And while I believe that we need to watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing, and to be wise as serpents and as innocent as doves, we are also called to love. To hope. To know that all things work out for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

 

My challenge to you and to myself today is to hope. To love with abandon, even if it means getting hurt. To hope in knowing that Christ will vindicate, and you don’t have to worry about doing that for yourself. I’m challenged to see my hope not as a negative thing that I have too much of, but to see it as a God-given gift to use while I am here on earth. If you’re in the same boat, I challenge you to do the same. If you’re in the other camp, where you don’t look for chances to hope and love with abandon, to be known by your love, I challenge you to find those opportunities. They surround you every day.

 

Can you imagine what this world would look like if we went forth as vessels of God’s tender mercy, love, hope, and holiness instead of keeping all of that selfishly inside us, where it does no ultimate good? I dare say we might be able to change the world one act of hope at a time, through God’s perfect, undeserved favor. Find your hope in Christ and march forward to distribute it willingly to those around you who need it. Trust me, they’re there. Now let’s find them and believe for God to do something great in this as we humble ourselves to His work and heart. He’s done it before, and I choose to believe that He will do it again.

 

How about you? Are you with me?‎