By Pastor Kevin Barnhart
Spring Grove Evangelical Free
Words are filled with power, impact, and beauty. They can paint a vivid picture, captivate the imagination, and convey a window into our souls. But have you ever thought about how often words are diluted with our flippant use of them. The word hope for example. People always say things like “I hope so,” but what they really mean is “I doubt it.” We have made a word like hope to convey disbelief, diluted hope and sometimes the word hope even comes laced with hints of despair. BUT ,hope according to the Hebrew translation means: a confident expectation of what God has promised. Think about that for a moment…
Why would a hopeful phrase be filled with so much doubt?
Is it because our hearts are filled with so much doubt? Is it because the hard lessons of life and deeply painful valleys have been our hard, but effective teachers in holding hope at arm’s length? When did our “hope so” turn into I ‘doubt so?” For each person they are on their own journey. It’s easy to hope when the days are bright and our vision clear. As some have observed, in many ways it’s easy to believe in the sun when it’s shining down in all its glory. But, hope can be so dangerous. Life can teach us the pain of misplaced hope. To hope in someone or something that cannot or will not steward that sacred trust is to know a deep form of pain. After that it’s hard to hope again. Everything in us says that hurt so bad – don’t do that again. When I was a missionary studying a foreign language, I came upon an interesting bit of wisdom, they would say – “Hope is the last to die.” It had so many contours of truth to it. Meaning, if hope goes one doesn’t hang on long. Frankl observed this too in the concentration camps. He would say if people believed they would be rescued by Christmas and weren’t they often died before New Year’s. Why? Hope, even false hope is the last to die.
But what about when the rains come, and dark clouds gather. Of course, the rational part of our brain that learned of object permanence realizes that the sun is still there it didn’t cease to exist the moment my ability to perceive it was diminished or temporarily obscured. No, but our hope and our vision seem so easy when there is no need for them. But when they become desperately needed, they become so hard to come by. Isn’t that what makes them so incredibly valuable? The scarcity of resilient hope, and vision in the dark night of our soul is what makes these precious gems beyond valuation.
So, what do you hope in? Or even better, in whom do you hope? For some, they hope in themselves. Don’t let others let you down. If you mess up, then you only have yourself to blame. Nevertheless, the deep longing of our heart for someone to be in the foxhole with us doesn’t go away. We want more than an “I hope so” filled with soul crushing doubts. We want the real thing. But is it real, is it out there or are we just wishing and chasing rainbows and unicorns?
Like the man said so long ago “I believe help my unbelief.” Since Jesus took that man where he was at maybe he will take our “I hope so” Lord help me with my hopelessness. Help me with despair, that tumbles into darkness from whence it’s hard to even remember light, and life.
What if our failure to find the answer in ourselves was only part of a larger discovery process leading us to journey’s end. Jesus is the journey’s end.
Imagine if all your life was leading you to the ultimate source of hope. It wasn’t you, or some political leader who would change everything, it wasn’t your bank account, or the one you are with. What if you could have real hope, not a throwaway line, but the real McCoy. A hope that changes the way you walk through this hard sod. Hope is out there waiting for you – and His name is Jesus.
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