Hope

Hope: a feeling of expectation, and a desire for a certain thing to happen

⁷  Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

make melody to our God on the lyre!

⁸  He covers the heavens with clouds;

he prepares rain for the earth;

he makes grass grow on the hills.

⁹  He gives to the beasts their food,

and to the young ravens that cry.

¹⁰  His delight is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,

¹¹  but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,

in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Psalms 147:7-11 ESV

            Here is a question for you all to start off with, if we did not have hope, would life be worth living.  We all have hope in something or for something because hope often brings meaning and certainty to our lives.  We hope in God that He loves us that He will provide for us.  We hope that our significant others will be there at the end of the day for us or that our children will be better than we are.  Or that the Twins will keep winning and won’t find some way to epically crash their way out of the playoffs.  So let’s explore hope and find out if it is different than optimism.  Let’s start with one of my favorite movie quotes from The Shawshank Redemption with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. 

“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing,

And no good thing ever dies”- Andy Dufresne

            So here is my first question, is hope really the best thing.  I do admit that hope is important and life would  be really boring and even pointless if we did not hope in or for something.  I am reminded of what the Apostle Paul has to say in I Corinthians 13, that faith, hope and love remain and the greatest of those three is love.  I think what the Apostle Paul is reminding Andy, Red, and the rest of us is that hope is important, but our hope and faith should come out of our love for God and others.  Love is central to who God is and show He interacts with His creation. Our response should be that the basis of everything we do is out of love for God and Gods creation.  This love can only come from God, because our love is fickle and narcissistic.  Eventually our love will dry up and we will end up a grumpy old person who yells at people to get off their lawn.  Gods love is the only reason we can have true hope and have faith.

            My second question is that are there two different types of hope?  What I mean by this is there is the hope that God gives that will never default or fail us and then there is human hope.  We hope that the big free agent signing will lead our team to the promise land, or that the new job will provide financial security for the family, or that a change of scenery will change our attitude.  Here is the thing of it though, athletes will underperform, get hurt or there will be a better team, there is nothing wrong with taking the higher paying job, but if it is just a cash grab for toys and status, no amount of money will make us secure or happy, and often a change in attitude requires more of a change in perspective than a change in scenery.  So are the things we chase have eternal value or are they here today and gone tomorrow?

            My third question is, what is the different between hope and optimism?   I look at it this way, this is where hope and faith mingle together.  True hope is based on something concrete and is often based on relationship.  One can have hope because the one that made the promise has come through before and their word is true.  I can hope that the sun rises in the east because that is what it does and it never alters.  The same is with God, we have the Bible and the story of the living saints to know how God is faithful.  I can hope in God will come through now and in the future because He has in the past.  Optimism is different because we have nothing to base it on, or we are wishing that it will happen, but there is no guarantee it will come true.  I can be optimistic that it will be nice out on my birthday in October, but I have not concrete evidence it will be.  I relate optimism to a four year old being on a sugar high, it may be fun, free flowing and all fun and games in the moment, but eventually there will be a crash and it will be very ugly and messy with a lot of clean up and maybe even some damage control.

            My fourth question is that does our hope cause us to look forward?  As Christians, we all hope for heaven and that is a good thing to hope for and it will come true.  But here is the thing, are we so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.  Heaven is a place where things will be put back in order, but here is the thing, hope begins the process now of transformation.  True hope means that I don’t have to stay a jerk, and that I can love those who are jerks back to me.  Now I am all for healthy boundaries, but Godly hope means that Gods grace is big enough to change us now to become more Christ like.  Call it spiritually maturity, sanctification, growing in grace or what ever other name people call it, the point is, true hope is allowing God to change us, even the parts we don’t want Him to.

            My fifth and final question is that can an authentic hope only come through valleys and trials?  There is a quote from a book I read by Jurgen Multmann which is “Lamenting is grief that is anchored in hope.” There are such things as Godly grief and lamenting and they each deserve their own space but they both play into Godly hope.  Here is my observation, the people who often have the unshakable and unmovable hope have been through hell and back.  We al have heard stories and know people who have been punched in the gut, and have seen or experienced things that no person should ever experience, yet they still believe in the goodness of God and His plan for their lives.  I think we are really vulnerable in these situations and forces us to put up or shut up.  These situations force us to take a look at what we really believe and sort out what needs to be developed and held on to, what really is not that important, and to find those things that just need to go away.

            I will close with this story.  Horatio Spafford is the author of the Hymn It is Well with My Soul and the basis for this hymn is after loosing all of his property in the great Chicago Fire of 1871, he sent his family by boat over to Europe for a little R&R and to assist in the ministry of the famous evangelist/preacher D.L. Moody and he was going to join them after he finished up some things in Chicago.  During the trip over, the boat sank and his wife was the only one who survived from his family.  After receiving the news Horatio got on the next ship to head to Europe and he asked the captain to sail by the place where his children perished.  After sailing past the spot of the wreckage, he could of told God off, but instead he penned his famous hymn.  In closing, here is the third verse of that hymn and the real reason we have hope.

My Sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought

My sin, not in part, but the whole

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord o my soul

Questions to Ponder

Is our hope based on what we can do our what God can do through us?

Is our hope based on just getting out of our mess, or being transformed into a new creation?

What are those things that we rely or hope in that eventually fail us or leave us out to try?

How does hope and trust go together?