The thing about hope is that sometimes the only result is shame.
I've hoped for a lot of things in my life; I'm an idealist like that. I see what can be and I wish, wish, wish for it until I'm shameful in my desire for that thing for which I've wished so hard. Like the sister I wished so hard for that I convinced my class she'd been born and named, even when no such sister ever had or ever would result. Like the full amount of time I was supposed to spend in Guatemala and didn't. Like those ten or twelve boys I'd very easily convinced myself were the one. Like one hundred other things I wished for and never saw the fruition of. There's shame in that.
Lately I've been thinking about II Corinthians chapter 13. You know the one, the love chapter. The one that old ladies needlepoint onto white cloth and the one that rookie calligraphers always practice on white paper. You know the one. I know it too, but recently I've been thinking about only one section: Love hopes all things.
What does hoping all things mean? And how do we remain bouyant in light of the negative outcome ratio in our lives? To be sure, for every one thing we see the fruition of that which we'd hoped, there are nine more we may never see.
Today I was reading in Isaiah, chapter 49.23:
...Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.
The difference in hoping all things, hoping for all things, hoping to see the fruition of all things, and hopefully waiting for the Lord is that the latter is a perspective change and not an effort change. I can exert the same amount of hoping for some thing that I exert in my pursuit of the Lord and the outcome will be totally different because my perspective is different.
And there is no shame in the end because He doesn't fail.
7 comments:
Hmmm. I too am an idealist. And I've had countless hopes crushed. Can I really hope again? "To be sure, for every one thing we see the fruition of that which we'd hoped, there are nine more we may never see." That's so how I feel. I will believe God for things so easily, and they fail so often. How do I continue to believe?
Good post.
that's really good stuff. i think i'll be thinking about it for a while.
...and i now know why you remove so many comments...
Actually, that's the first time that's ever happened to me. Weird. I usually only remove posts if they are in some way offensive to someone reading or personally aggressive. Call me a baby, but I'd rather keep it clean around here.
That's what I try and remind myself of with my ring that I'm usually wearing..."hope"...not in this world, not in man, not in a dream, not in an ideal, not in myself...but in the One who does not disappoint.
Yeah... wow. As I read, I thought of all the things I've hoped for... and could feel the shame, especially for hoping out loud.
In the greater perspective, I think of the hope of seeing this generation rise up into their destinies in Him... the hope of a returning Jesus Christ... Paul held onto His return even in his time.
Yet, if we don't hope, then what will be left to burn inside of us.
It makes me think that hoping in the small things, even though we may not see them come to fruition, helps us to have hope in the eternal, everlasting hope we have in Christ. We learn the perseverence we need to press on.
And helps us to realize the passing away of this world in which we live. To Him we say - This world has nothing for me, I will follow You, I will have hope... In YOU!
Not to make you jealous or anything...but I'm less than 4 hours away from my second-visit-in-one-week to a certain dashing history prof...go ahead, you have a few hours left to master the art of living vicariously through me!
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