Hope

"But I will hope continually, and I will praise You yet more and more."
​Psalm 71:14 (NKJV)

Let's talk about hope.

Hope is defined as "cherish[ing] a desire with anticipation" (Merriam-Webster) or "to want something to happen or to be true" (Cambridge Dictionary). It's painted as a feeling. Spoken about as this glowy sort of optimism. Scoffed at when you express hoping for something deemed too distant because surely hope won't survive that long of a journey.

Given how the past year or so of life has been going, I've been thinking a lot about hope. And I've struggled to reconcile this lovely glimmering illustration of hope with what it looks like in my life. My hope, I think, would look more like a drowned rat than anything that might glow. There's bruises and scars from that long journey that could have been abandoned ages ago. My hope has dirt under its fingernails from all the times it hung on while life tried to fling it away and then clawed back to its feet.

But I think I've figured out why hope has looked so different from what is often presented. It's because my hope is not a feeling. True hope- the kind that actually lasts, that isn't just a fleeting positive thought- cannot be a feeling. Instead, hope is a calling, a command to fix our eyes beyond circumstances, a demonstration of faithfulness to the One who is always faithful. True hope is born out of a confident knowledge that there is always victory for those who are in Christ Jesus. It is consciously shedding the burdens of disappointment and discouragement because, regardless of how many realized desires the future holds, we have the promise of eternity with the sovereign and loving God who created, saved, and sanctifies us.

"Be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day; for surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off."
Proverbs 23: 17b-18 (NKJV)

This past year or so has brought a slew of challenges that, quite honestly, I would like to give up on. Between mounting frustrations, obstacles that have made my greatest passions feel like burdens, dreams that seem so close one minute and completely out of reach the next... I am tired. I am hurt and angry and tired. But I am hopeful. Hopeful because no matter how unfeasible things seem, I walk with the God who does the impossible. Hopeful because my passions are gifts from my Creator, and I know He equips me to use them well. And hopeful because at the end of it all, there is the promise of a glorious hereafter... and no matter how things go here on Earth, there is nothing that can take away the victory that my Savior has won.

All that to say, hope shouldn't be some wavering, ephemeral thing. It can, and should, be one of the most resilient and unshakable things in life... but not without Jesus. He is not just the foundation of my hope, He Himself is my hope.

So let your hope be rugged and stubborn. Let it have calluses on its hands and dirt under its fingernails. And let it be eternal and immovable because it is found in Christ.

"Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord."
​Psalm 31:24 (NKJV)