When hope is not vague or pretty
Hope has always been a pretty delicate spring flower until last week. A shot in the dark almost- a holding onto something vague and hoping for the best.
‘I’m pretty hopeful’
‘I have a vague hope of it happening one day’
‘I hope you have a great day’
‘I hope to see you later’
But this evening I studied and met Hope and she has been misrepresented. These are not hope. They are the human side of hope at best. Desires. Doubts painted positive. Not anchored in anything much.
When we look at images of hope through human eyes we often misunderstand them. A tiny fetus, a sprouting plant - they look so delicate and easy to stamp out - but we forget the strength and power of the life-force behind them. We fail to see the power of hope. The incredible force of a spark to create a wildfire.
Let me introduce you to the real Hope I met this evening:
She’s a fighter
She is obstinate, sticking her heels in confidently in the face of storms
She comes alive in the midst of such storms - they are oxygen to her flame
In fact, her arrival on earth was due to sin, opposition and death
She is the grace, the power to face any circumstance
She is the immovable anchor in God in the mightiest waves
She isn’t delicate and pretty - she is strong and breathtakingly beautiful.
She doesn’t give up
She is not vague!
She embraces her weakness entirely knowing that in it, God’s awesome power flows into her
She accompanies faith on her journeys of discovering lands, encouraging her at each hurdle to keep pushing through
She is a force that cannot be overcome
She is gentle in the midst of grief but a constant nudge to see a greater perspective
She is a flame that cannot be put out, no matter how small the fire.
She burns faithfully through the night even when she is a secret prayer in our hearts not yet spoken out loud.
She is resilient
She is joyfully raucous and confident - ’danger’ is her middle name.
She is the woman in Proverbs 31 who laughs at tomorrow! She laughs at it! She knows who she is plugged into: the wild, all powerful, unceasing, King of Freedom!
Oh, and as I met Hope this evening I realized I she was incredible familiar and that we were already friends. She is in fact a He, and His name is Jesus. My hope of glory. Hallelujah!
“...Jesus, our hope...”
“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently…And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
