In Came Hope

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:31

Hope is a word I misuse all of the time.  I say thing like, “I hope it doesn’t rain.” or “I hope there is a parking spot close to the door.” When I really think about it, the things I “hope” for are usually things that would make my life convenient, or pleasant.  This past week I have been challenged to look at the way I use the word hope. The first thing I needed to do was compare the worldly definition (the one I most often used) to the virtue of  hope.  Here’s what I found. “Hope” is commonly used to refer to a wish connected to a person's desire. But “Godly hope”; the virtue of hope, is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.  I’m pretty sure God doesn’t care about me getting sprinkled on or parking close to the front door at the grocery store so I decided I needed some work.  

I love it when God teaches a lesson and uses real people as the teachers!  Last week  I met a beautiful woman who told me she was a woman of hope.  She went on to share that for years she had prayed that her family would grow closer.  Her children were grown and moved away and she longed for them to be more connected and involved in each others life.  She said she always knew God could do that but it wasn’t until recently that she began to see him work.  She said the things God was doing in her family were filling her with such abundant hope.  As I listened to her share her story my heart both sunk and swelled as she told me that she was dying of cancer, but she was so filled with hope because God had used this situation to answer her prayer.  Fighting the disease had been the thing that drew them together.  She told me she was not afraid to die but rather hope filled because God had answered her prayer and brought her family so close that she knew they would support each other and care for her husband and make sure he didn’t get too lonely when she was gone.  I was in awe as I hugged this beautiful soul, and took a lesson on the true meaning of the word hope.

God used another event this week to thump me with the word hope.  God demonstrated his faithfulness in a might way in the lives of an incredible newlywed couple.  As I took my spot in church for this beautiful wedding my heart was a little on the heavy side.  The groom had lost both of his parents in a car crash just about a year ago and as I sat in the pew waiting for mass to begin I wondered how they would feel the same joy as other couples and I wondered what Fr. could say honor the event, the couple and the parents of the groom. Just when my tears were about to get out of control I remembered that God is bigger than our pain and he loved that bride and groom more than they loved each other.  When it came time for Fr. Eric’s homily the hope came barging in!  He spoke of the new life of Easter and the new life of marriage.  He also talked about the beginnings and the scars that bring us to the important event in our lives.  I watched this beautiful new couple laugh and smile and I watched their family and closest friends cling to the laughter and joy of the day and realized the only way that all happened was because of hope.  Hope that joy will  follow pain.  Hope that God will never leave us stuck in our scars and our pain.  Hope that he has a plan and that he works in every situation, not just the fancy, happy simple ones.  Hope is understanding that God has promised  good for his children and that good rises from the ashes of awful.  I saw hope rise on Saturday and it was so much bigger than the sadness.​

So what will I hope for now?  I hope I will be able to use the word correctly.  I pray that I can seek God working in my life and face my challenges and trials with confident expectation  in his faithfulness because thats what hope really is.
A Seed To Plant:  Think about the true definition of hope…make a new list of things you hope for.