Hope

I'm so excited to have you hear from a very dear friend who has spoken volumes into my life. We have been through so many heartbreaks and trials together, and she has always been the voice of love to my voice of cynicism. I'm so happy that she agreed to pour into your lives by allowing me to post a recent journal entry of hers.

                                                  HOPE

by April Morrison 

Hope. It almost seems like another four letter word to add to the list.  Just saying it in a crowd of people can elicit every possible emotion.  Holding on to it can bring the deepest pain.  Saying it can sting your tongue and pierce the soul.   Everywhere you look, t-shirts advertise it, plastic smiles try to look like it, social media buzzes with it, and the world claims to offer it.  As soon as you take hold, you soon realize that the hand of hope to which you cling so tightly is nothing but a fist of air.   You are left empty, doubting, and in utter despair – the evil twin of Hope.

“Hold onto hope,” they tell us.  “Trust in hope,” is what they say.  What are you hanging onto?  How do you “hold onto” something completely intangible?  How do you know if you have it?  How do you “lose” it?  How do you know if you have “lost” it?

Webster defines hope as the following:  to cherishing a desire with anticipation; to desire with expectation of obtainment; to expect with confidence.

Now, I do not know if Webster was a born again believer, but he seems to adequately portray humanity's understanding of the concept.  Hope is a term used to describe the most insignificant to the deepest human desire.  It hardly seems appropriate to use the same term to express a childhood yearning for Christmas gifts versus a cure for cancer or the restoration of a marriage seemingly broken beyond repair.   However, because of the inadequacies of Western-American language, we are forced to tolerate this paucity, a dearth that violates the core of its sacredness.

What does hope look like?  Well, that depends.  To whom do you rely on for your justification?  Is it the same person reflected in the mirror as you brush your teeth or is it a man with His flesh ripped from each limb questioning why His Father had forsaken Him?  In the world’s eyes, the second option is sketchy at best.   At least the man in the mirror can pay a mortgage, own a home, and not have to rely on His Dad to multiply His borrowed lunch to feed His friends.

What can a man bleeding, naked, and beaten beyond recognition offer to a world who seems to have all the “hope” they can possibly muster?

Everything.

“Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  (Romans 5:2-5)

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” 1 Peter 1:3-6

That is it.  This is hope.  It is not something to be imagined, reckoned, or held.  Stop clinging.  Cease your striving.  Start believing.  Believe in who He is (John 1:29).  Accept what He did (1 Peter 3:18).  Hold on to what He has promised (2 Corinthians 1:20).  Trust His grace (2 Corinthians 12:9).  Walk in His mercies new each morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).  Be who He created you to be (Ephesians 2:10).

 “You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.  You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor. “  (Job 11:18-19)