the view from where I sit
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.” Isaiah 42:1-4
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God, Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:1-5
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5: 2b-5
Hope does not disappoint us.
It’s a bold statement, but it’s also the one that has been continually running through my mind. I think it’s difficult at times to even know what exactly hope means. As I’ve taken a bit of time to reflect, I think that to me, this year hope means that there’s more to the story. The image I have is a child’s handwriting – big fat crayon letters, messy, crooked – they’ve done their best, but it’s so imperfect. I often see my story like that: messy, incomplete, and lacking much. But the tiny baby – the hope of the world – came into our mess. Because of him, my story has order, purpose, and lacks nothing. There’s someone writing over my crooked crayon letters with brilliant strokes of love.
At the end of the day, I’m not going to be disappointed with what I see. Will it look as I imagined it would? Maybe not. Will it look just like everyone else’s story? Likely no. But as I allow him, God is redeeming my mess bit by bit (and our larger, communal mess). He’s making things right; the way that we know they should be, the way that we long for. In the end, I live in this tension of what I don’t yet fully see. But that makes me live all the more purposefully, knowing that even greater things are yet to come. He will make everything beautiful and I wait in expectation for that.
What are your thoughts on HOPE this year?
Megan –
This year more than any other I’ve found myself asking God for hope . . .
Thanks for this post
This was an excellent reminder of what our hope looks like.
Can’t wait to see you!!
I’m late in reading this. But wow, how I needed that statement today. I’ve never pulled out the impact of that one powerful statement, and you’ve given me a whole new way to look at it. I too have been falling back on a lot of hope this year. Hope is what has brought me to this point. It’s obvious that it hasn’t failed me yet. And you just gave me faith that I can continue to lean into it even more and that it will continuously be there. Thanks for that, it helps more than you know.
I keep forgetting about worshipping him, even though I keep remembering that Jesus is the whole point of Christmas. I went to buy candles for advent today (I am a little late…it is my final exam’s fault!) and I got to Target, and bought candles to make our windowsills pretty…because I totally forgot about the advent candles! I really want Him in my Christmas, not on my windowsill.
So, my HOPE is that God would break through my thoughts about how pretty Christmas could/should/would be. I am also hoping that 2 Thessalonians 5:15-22 becomes…me.
This is beautiful. Thank you for posting it and I am really looking forward to seeing you!