Hope (2) ...

In one Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, Calvin is talking to Susie (remember, his arch-enemy) about a test they had just taken. Calvin asked her: "What grade did you get?"
Susie says, "I got an A."
Calvin replies, "Really? Boy, I'd hate to be you. I got a C."
Curious, Susie asks, "Why on earth would you rather get a C than an A?!"
To which Calvin smugly replies "I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone's expectations."

Sometimes I feel a lot like Calvin, not just about keeping others' expectations of me lower but keeping MY personal expectations lower. If I didn't hope, then I wouldn't have to deal with the heartbreak of disappointment. And after experiencing the cycle of hope and anticipation followed by disappointment often enough, sometimes it feels easier and safer not to hope and expect.

Unfulfilled hopes and desires suck out "life", yet without those very dreams, "life" dies! Martin Luther King Jr said "If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all."

So, to hope, or not to hope? Do we take the risk or numb ourselves from the possibility of disappointment? Is it possible, in this dark and fallen world, to live with hope? Or is it foolishness to hope for things we have no assurance of?

Perhaps our predicament with hope is really because we have misplaced it. We read a striking example in Phil 1:19-21, when Paul expresses his hopes

For I know that this will turn out for my salvation ... (Phil 1:19)

Paul was in prison at the time he penned these words and he says he knows that things WILL work out. That is a pretty strong statement to make! How did he know? Did he have the assurance from the Holy Spirit that he would be released? Or was he certain that God would cause an earthquake to open the prison doors just like He did when Paul and Silas were in jail in Philippi (see Acts 16:25)? God had delivered Paul many times from many dangerous circumstances; could Paul be basing his hopes on those experiences?

We read on

according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed,
but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death (Phil 1:20).

No! Paul's hopes were not based on God rescuing him from his present situation, although I am sure he wished it with all his heart. His hope was in something much surer than that. Life might not turn out the way he wanted it to, but his hopes and desires were that regardless of circumstance (life or death), Christ would be magnified through him. And that is why he KNEW that things would work out. Because whether he died, or whether he lived, he wins anyway.

Misplaced hope.

There is nothing wrong with desiring certain things. It is normal and human to wish for suffering to cease, for happiness, for financial security, for health and other good things. But when those hopes are dashed, do we still have a stronger, deeper, underlying hope and trust in God who alone is good, eternal, unlimited, and unchanging?

There is a hope we can place in the Lord who has assigned me my portion and my cup, and made my lot secure (Ps 16:5 paraphrased). This means that because God has "assigned" this difficult season to me, I will find the grace to survive, no, abound in it still!

There is a hope that whether we are dead or alive, we can live with Jesus forever" (1 Thess 5:10). Surely the hope of His nearness, His comfort, the promise of Him will sustain me through everything.

And there is a hope we can place in the power of God to magnify Christ in my body, whether I live or die (Phil 1:20). Often we unconsciously believe that if only circumstances were to change, we would be of better use to God. But "the pathway to holiness is located right where you are. In those circumstances, those relationships, in that tiredness, in that challenge. The grace of God to make you holy is right there". (taken from 'Secure in the everlasting arms, Elisabeth Elliot)

And may I add, the grace of God to make your life count for eternity is right there too.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.
Ps 43:5

Hope ...

Hope put off makes the heart sick,
but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. (Prov 13:12)

I have often read this proverb and found it wanting. I suppose it is just stating the facts, that unfulfilled desires causes heartbreak, and everything comes to life again when what we have been hoping for comes to pass. But the longer the wait, the more painful it is. Yet, funny creatures we are, we keep hoping.

Why? Because whilst there is still hope, there is possibility. Hope is powerful. It is the drive that keeps us waiting even when the chances of fulfilment becomes slimmer. It keeps our soul alive with the thought "maybe tomorrow".

But there comes a day when that hope either turns to joy or to disappointment. And that is when I find this proverb wanting. It does not tell me what to do with the finality of a desire that is never fulfilled.

What do we do with a hope that is never satisfied? What happens when a sickness is not healed? Or a relationship not restored? Or injustice prevails? Or our prayers go unanswerred? What then?

What may be a disappointment to one may not seem a big deal to another. The heart knows its own bitterness .... Prov 14:10a But whatever the cause, the effects of disappointment are as strong as hope. It is felt in the deadness or emptiness that fills the void which once contained hope. It is felt in the grief and/or the fear the grips the heart. If hope is the force that drives you to keep believing, disappointment feels like the chains that keep you bound because there is nowhere left to go.

What then?!

Paul's words in Phil 4:11-13 used to irritate me because they seemed so impossible. But as I have journeyed this life and experienced disappointments I have not known how to deal with, I have come to crave for the same spirit and ability to say:

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:11-13

We hope because we look forward to something turning out the way we would like it to. But in the wisdom and sovereignty of God, our path in life might turn out a lot different. There comes a quiet rest when we can say we accept whatever lot God has placed in our lives. So whether we are "full" or "hungry", whether we "abound" or "suffer need", we know that nothing happens that is out of God's plans and purposes. And when there is no hope left to cling on to, God is still there.

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul!