The Hard Work of Hope

As we were working on various projects this weekend, my mind kept turning back to a phone conversation I had just had with a friend just a few days earlier. It was disjointed and incoherent. It was angry and confused. She wondered aloud how we could have similar upbringings, yet land in very different places theologically. It was painful. As I spoke truth to her pain, she angrily said, “I knew you couldn’t fix it.”

This response would have normally crushed me, but instead it renewed my resolve to speak words of life to her. “Oh, I didn’t think that for one minute I could fix this. But I know that God can. He redeems the years the locusts ate. He is in the business of setting us free to walk in peace and joy.” Hope is hard to hold fast to when despair threatens to overwhelm, isn't it?

While I scraped away layers of paint, the irony was not lost on me how I was physically living out the practical ways we are called to redeem, restore, refurbish, or reuse the lost, forgotten and broken things. A fresh coat of paint, a newly cut lawn, new blooms or fruit in our gardens are echoes of a greater redemption. One that is not yet, but soon will be. Because we’re made in the image of God, we get to be creative restorers of things, of people, of relationships, etc. But in an HGTV world, where whole houses are reclaimed and restored in a 45 minute sitting, it’s hard to feel the gratification of slow unstylish blood, sweat, and tears to produce something good.

But then I read something profound on social media: Our life will be impacted by our response to suffering more than the suffering itself... Our emotions only tell us about the moment; they cannot predict the future.

That's when I had the deep conviction that we all have a responsibility of clinging to hope. We have the choice to believe God's character and promises are true. We are to be in charge of our emotions and tell our hearts the truth even when we feel something very different. I love what Elizabeth Elliot has to say about suffering. It's a lot! But this quote seems to be so apropos:

"Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering.... The love of God did not protect His own Son.... He will not necessarily protect us - not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process."

As she says, Suffering is Never for Nothing. I know so many people suffering in their health, their relationships, their finances, and in a whole myriad of other ways. I have gone through trials myself. But I can offer the same hope to you that I know to be true from Hebrews 13:8- Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We know he is reliable as well as his Word. So, in the midst of ever changing circumstances, unpredictable tragedies, and unexpected outcomes we know God never changes.

What are ways you cling to hope?