Hope

There are certain words in the American vocabulary that really can’t be defined in one standard sentence. Hope is one such word. It’s almost like gathering a bunch of people to experience the Grand Canyon and expecting them to describe it the exact same way. It just doesn’t work.

Hope manifests itself differently in the lives of each and every person who believes that one day things will change… things will be different… things will be better.

As a child, I hoped my childhood would remain idyllic (it did). I hoped that I would grow up and be wildly successful. I hope that I would get into graduate school. I hoped that my relationship wouldn’t fail and would really honor God. I hoped my life was honoring God.

Hope manifests itself every day because I believe that one day things will change... things will be different... things will be better.

But it’s important to note that my hope isn’t a blind and wishful hope. My hope is in the One who created the very word! The One who protected His people from danger (Psalm 23:5); the One who caused their clothes not to tatter or their shoes to thin (Deuteronomy 8:4); the One who healed the blind and lame yesterday and the One who can (and does!) heal today (Hebrews 13:8).

The things I hope for today—marriage, acting like an adult, keeping up with my house, getting out of Phonetics alive, throwing myself into a career and having kids—are important to me but I can’t let them consume me. The God who I serve has yet to let me down in His promises, therefore I put my hope and trust in Him (Hebrews 6:18). As a collected body of people who need hope like we need oxygen, let’s trust that God has the power to do what He promised (Romans 4:21). Vocalize to Him, to me, to us what you’re hoping for so we can be a community of believers who start acting like we believe in the hope that only God can give. If we earnestly believe He is who He says He is, then I think we should act like it.

Hope manifests itself every day because we believe that one day things will change... things will be different... things will be better.

When I look down the highway of my life, hope often seems like a figment of my imagination. You know, like that puddle of water in the middle of the hot pavement that is non-existent by the time you get up on it.

How can hope survive in the midst of an abusive relationship?

An unknown future?

Messy relationships?

Friendships gone bad?

Hopes and dreams crushed?

Yet, hope is found around every corner. And it is the building block of our faith.

Our hope is not like the world's—an idle hope that wrings its hands wishing for something better. No. Our hope is a living hope. A hope that stands beside us when there is no reason to hope.

Fear and worry take their turns, rehearsing between them all the horrible possibilities. I know how to hide the fear from the masses. I also know how to drink it in alone.

Hope somehow morphs into the negative. So many I hope nots, wringing hands and furrowed brows. If, on a random Tuesday in September, we can turn on the news and watch the world change, or walk into work and not walk out again, or get on a plane and never come home, then perhaps nothing is certain. Or is it?

Hope wraps its arm around our shoulders, holding us up. Walking with us down lonely paths, putting its hand under our chin and lifting our faces to the light, pointing us to the source of our hope: Jesus.

It is this same hope that kept my faith aflame when my beloved grandmother had a stroke and when I found out I was trapped in an abusive relationship with a cheater.

My tears blurred my vision and dared to blow out the already flickering flame. But hope in God's resurrection power sustained me. Kept me from crumbling into a million pieces.

Hope sat next to me on that 5 hour drive to Fort Worth when I would have to see her in a hospital bed as I never had before. Hope was with me when I realized I didn’t deserve to get hurt by a selfish free-loader and walked away. Hope held my trembling hand and let me lay my worried head on His shoulder. Hope softened the fall when I told my family that I HAD to get out or he might kill me.

It was only after God had delivered me from these situations that I realized just how blessed I was. And it was only after the doctors performed a surgery that probably saved her life that I was able to fathom how close we came to losing her. Hope was alive in that operating room; standing vigil at my grandmother's bed and working through those talented doctors.

It's this same hope that sustained the heroes of the Bible.

Hope kept Joseph going when he was mocked by his brothers for a God-given dream. Hope carried him when those same brothers threw him in a ditch and then turned around and sold him into slavery. The hope didn't fade when he was wrongly accused of making a sexual advance and then thrown into prison. Around every difficult corner, hope stood waiting for Joseph. It kept him believing in God who would bring that dream to pass in a most remarkable way.

Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. (Romans 4:18). As each year passed, his faith was being built stronger block by block. When there is no reason to hope in our own lives, how can we be like Abraham and keep holding on? How can I keep trudging on even when everything looks hopeless?

How do I do that when the stroke has visibly eaten away at my grandmother’s once vivacious frame? How do I do that when I swore to myself I would NEVER allow some stupid boy to abuse me? How do I do that in those terribly hard times when it seems like nothing will ever seem fair and good again?

I've discovered that the answer is both easy and hard. I, like you, must decide to live not on the basis of what I see, but on the truth that God will do what He said He would do.

Once again, I'm grabbing hold of hope's hand and in the process watching my faith being slowly re-built block by block. Hope lives and can indeed be found around every corner.

As time went on I discovered true hope is believing God is good no matter what He decides to do. Let me tell you, getting to that place is not simple, neat, or easy. But it’s worth it. I used to think hope was a fluffy, faraway feeling—like cotton candy for your heart. I’ve learned real hope is gritty, real, and raw. It’s strong and wild, unpredictable and fierce. And the best feeling in the world.

I’ve had so many conversations with God along the lines of, “Lord, no more with the hope thing. Just answer the prayers already.” He lovingly responds, “Lean into me dear one. Please be still and know that I am God.” When I listen and lean rather than resist, I find rest. I have the hope my heart craves. And I even discover joy.

We tend to think what we need most is whatever we’re asking for in that moment. God knows what we really need is more of Him in every moment.

The Lord doesn’t define hope the way that we do, and His definition is crucial for every one of us as we walk through this life. I am sure that as you are reading these words, you can think of a place in your life where you feel hope is lost.

The Greek word for hope is "elpizo," and my favorite definition is to wait for salvation with joy and full confidence.

So, really, it isn’t about wanting some certain outcome or even longing for the desire of your heart.

It’s about waiting.

With joy.

With confidence.

And so today I sit, fingers tapping a keyboard, football game in the background, day slipping into night, and I do just that. I wait.

Have you ever noticed that there is really no point in hope in the absence of despair? That's certainly been true in my life.

And through it all I will believe in the hand of a Holy and Mighty God. I will wipe the tears away with the hand of trust and I will be confident in what awaits me.

My hope struggle occurs less in the midst of bad things that have happened and more in the midst of the everyday what if. I am daily confronted with a choice to believe the truth about hope. About what it is and what it isn't. What is hope if not a Person?

As I live my life, I worry about everything from phonetics grades to swine flu and everything in between. In the midst of walking the well-worn fear path, I have a choice to see hope as a noun instead of a verb. Rather than something I do, it is coming to mean Someone I trust. In that place, hope looks a lot less like something for later and a lot more like a Person for now. A Person who doesn't just hand out hope to those who ask, but becomes hope for those who believe and dare live as if He is truth. Hope is a now person, a Savior person, a God-man who entered into the depths of death and then, came back out again. And as crazy as the world thinks it, and as foolish as the walking dead make it sound, Hope is a Person and He lives in me.

I want to love Him all the way through my being, and trust Him with everything I have.