Over the past couple of months, I’ve been focusing a lot on a word that was given to me at the beginning of the race: Hope. When it was given to me as a prophetic word, I wasn’t very interested in it. It wasn’t a word that immediately struck a chord with me, so I stored it away for later, not sure if I would ever return to it.
About four months later, during one of my ten hour bus rides, I was having a difficult time sleeping. I was leaning against the window watching the Namibian landscape pass by and allowing my mind wander. So far on the race, I’ve found that God will bring a word or an idea to mind at times when I’m not looking for it…often it’s at a time when I let my mind relax, or when a song lyric or a quote captures my attention. This time, he just gently put the word “hope” back into the forefront of my mind, and since that bus ride I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
Over the past couple of months, I feel like the spirit has been slowly unravelling the idea of hope, bit by bit, showing me it’s importance for me personally, but also in the life of every Christian. I’ve been asking myself questions like, “what is it that I hope for?”, “what is it that every Christ-follower hopes for?”, and “what function does hope play in the Christian life?”
It’s funny how often, when I’m really trying to understand a concept, that concept shows up everywhere. Every book I’ve read lately has seemed to be about hope. Every song has seemed to be talking about hope. Even some of my squad-mates communicated to me at different points in the month that they felt like they needed to spend time reflecting on the word hope, without any idea that I was also spending time with that word. So I’ve been talking a lot about hope, reading a lot about hope, and trying to identify the hopes I’m holding onto. Here are a couple of reflections that have stood out to me over the past two months:
- As I started reflecting on the word hope, I felt pretty strongly that the Lord wanted me to “wear my hope openly.” When the word hope was given to me, it was given to me inscribed on a key as a necklace, so I started wearing my key as a reminder to continue reflecting on the word. But one of the things that I started believing is that hope is something that is meant to be worn openly. Every hope, whether it seems spiritual or not, needs to be expressed openly at some point. Proberbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” One of the things I’ve begun to realize about hope is that we can’t hide from the things that we hope for, and far too often, that’s something that I’ve tried to do. Hope can be scary. Usually we hope for something that we’re not guaranteed, and that’s ok. I think when we wear our hopes openly, it can be a doorway into the soul, helping us discover the deepest desires of our hearts. And if we’re willing to dig deep enough into our desires, we’ll eventually get to the core of our God-needs…needs that only God can fully satisfy. Whether our hopes are Christ-like, or misleading in nature, I really believe that if we could learn to approach our desires in a contemplative way, we would have the opportunity to discover our God-needs in a way that allows God to give us the things that would move us toward more wholeness. I believe a question that we would benefit from asking each other much more regularly is “What do you hope for?”
- Along those same lines, I’ve come to buy into a phrase I recently read, and I think connects deeply with the concept of hope… “How we do anything is how we do everything.” If I cut myself off regularly from hopes that feel risky, if I avoid hoping for good things for fear that they might not come to pass, how will that affect my ability to participate in Christian hope? If I can learn to embrace my hopes and engage them honestly, learning from them, chasing after them, and believing in their future potential, how might that impact the way that I embrace and engage my Christian hope?
- And then finally, what is the Christian hope? I’ve come to believe the Christian hope is all about resurrection. Resurrection when God finally makes all things new (Revelation 21:5), and resurrection moments happening all around us everyday. Jesus proclaims the pattern in his death and resurrection, and all creation follows his example. The question for Christ followers is whether or not we’re able to see resurrection possibility around us. Christians living a life afraid to hope are Christians who lack the ability to imagine new possibilities that God wants to bring to fruition. I think one of the major problems in churches today is that we think far too practically while serving a God who makes the impractical and improbable incredibly likely. Our imaginations are much too small. We’re afraid to hope, and as a result we miss out on the opportunity to see God literally take things that look dead and make them alive.
As a follower of Christ, I’ve had opportunities to see marriages that looked dead come to life, people trapped in depression discover new purpose, friends suffering from guilt and shame release burdens and live with freedom, and people who have experienced rejection their whole lives find acceptance, community, and love. I’ve seen people give up addictions, grudges turn into forgiveness, and hardened hearts become full of compassion and joy. And when I’ve looked for it, I’ve experienced a lot of these things in myself. The Christ-life, for me, has become an opportunity to see things that didn’t exist before come into being, and things that previously looked dead come to life. So, wear your desires openly. Imagine kingdom possibilities that seem impossible. Hope. We have a God that is, himself, hope realized.
