Hope

Hope is hard.

I've always danced around hope, unsure of how I really feel about it. Of course, it doesn't really matter how I feel about it....it is what it is.

I'm usually very afraid to actually do it. It is one of the most beautiful words that I know and also one of the scariest. It seems risky and that it has the ability to disappoint and crush. But it is also alluring....can I really believe it to be true? I want to. Can I really hope and not have my heart crushed? Maybe...maybe not. I know that it really does depend on what I'm actually hoping in. I can't hope that every desire I have will be supplied. I can't hope that I will do everything perfectly. I can't hope that my life will be easy or that things will always happen as I'd like to plan them :) ..... But I can hope in the things He has promised (and that He will be there when I dare to hope and it hurts). I can hope that He will continue to break into this world and heal brokenness. I can hope in the work of Christ to redeem and change people. I can hope in the sufficiency of the gospel to work (in my life and in others).

These things I do know, because scripture says so:

Hope is something that He calls us to ("....that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you", Eph 1:18), that is substantial ("....because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the savior of all people", 1 Tim), and that requires faith and patience ("...For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Rom 8).

I want to be brave and boldly hope.