Hope

Anyone who has lived long enough to weather a crisis or two knows that sometimes we stand in the dark places with little more than hope that the light is coming.  It is not always a rational thing to live with hope.  There are moments when logic and reality stare us in the face so hard that we are tempted to forsake the hope that stirs within the human heart.  Still, we hope.  Even the most skeptical of us sometimes hope for a better day.  Regardless of the circumstances, we cling to hope like a person hanging to a piece of floating driftwood in the middle of the ocean.

 

In the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, we hear the Word of God saying, "Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what is seen?  For if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."  (Romans 8:24-25)  Hope always carries us into the realm of what is out yonder just beyond our reach.  Toward it we move.  It is what keeps us from being overwhelmed by the flood of despair which sometimes swirls around us trying to suck us under. 

 

What most of us realize is that we could not really live without hope.  When we marry, we hope the person we marry will still love us when we are old and empty of our youthful vitality.  When we are sick, we hope for a cure.  When we are facing our death, we hope in the life to come.  Perhaps, the really hard thing is waiting for the thing for which we hope with patience.  As we listen to what the Word of God is declaring, it becomes obvious that the waiting with patience part is a Word about remembering to Whom we have given our life and trusting in the Hands that hold us.