“Hope” is a weird word. I’ve always felt like it’s used a lot, but it’s kind of fluffy and fuzzy, often without substance, like pink cotton candy. We’re drawn to it cuz it’s pretty, like a wish, but I think maybe we don’t really understand it in a way that’s helpful in our “with God” life.
We mistakenly think that hope is positive thinking, or the tingly good feels, or confidence that things are going to turn out the way we want them to.
John started preaching a series on hope a couple weeks ago. It’s caused me to reflect a lot about this word. I think where we get off track is in the object of our hope. I know so many people who are longing, wishing, hoping for something deeply important to them – healing from cancer, a baby, reconciliation in a relationship, marriage, a job…
And that’s good and natural to ask God for what we hope for. Jesus says “Come to me…” and “What do you want me to do for you?” and “Pour out your hearts…”
But when I put my hope in my specific picture of a future, that’s where I get in trouble. I’m trusting in circumstances and feelings and myself more than putting hope in my God. If I cling to my specific picture of hope I make an idol out of it instead of offering it with open hands to God who knows better than I, and who can, even in this broken world, bring good that I can’t imagine out of despair. It may not be the good that I conjured up, or the perfection I would experience in an unbroken world, but like this quote says: Continue reading
