HOW TO HAVE HOPE

At our Thanksgiving dinner this year, my dad, fortunately, switched us to talking about hope instead of the other thrilling topics of politics, colonoscopies, and sleep apnea. Then in church the next day our preacher, Jody Vickery, spoke on the same topic... hope that is, not colonoscopies thank goodness.

When God brings up something back to back, I try to take note.

Sometimes I struggle holding on to hope.

It can feel like throwing a penny into a wishing well.

Have you ever been there?

And what's more frustrating when I'm feeling hopeless is when someone tries to cheer me up. It's like salt to a wound.

Imagine that It's a rainy, dreary day. Maybe you've been quarantined in your house with your children for 10 days straight, you're 3 seconds from snapping, and you desperately need a walk in the sunshine. Then "Karen" (since it's 2020) comes along and says "Oh look at this wonderful rainy sustenance from our dear Lord." 

MOVE IT ALONG KAREN.

Now, don't get me wrong, optimism and cheer have their place. I tend towards this at times too. We humans just don't love seeing someone else in pain, and we like to fix things.

When one of my children was upset because she lost her favorite toy, I just kept saying, "Oh it will be fine. Stop crying. We'll find it!" But you know what, we didn't.

Blind optimism does not equate to hope because it ignores the pain and makes empty promises.

The God I know doesn't do this.

He tells us to have hope because He sees our pain. He has delivered and will deliver on His promises.

Hope is God saying "remember".

My preacher said, "Hope looks backward before looking forward."

Hope reminds us what God has done so we remember what He can do.

If God parted the Red Sea, He can calm me when I'm anxious.

If God provided manna for the Israelites, He can provide what my family and I need.

If God enabled David to conquer Goliath, He can empower me to combat the giants of envy, insecurity, pride, and selfishness.

If God remained faithful to Jospeph through betrayal, abandonment, enslavement and imprisonment, then He will walk with me through whatever comes.

I can hope because of what God has done

And not just in the lives of Bible characters, but in my life and those around me.

If God can help my friend overcome addiction to heroin, He can help me when I'm tempted to numb out with my phone, alcohol, or food.

If God provided me with a supportive family, a friend to go on a walk when I needed her, a doctor to give me medicine, and group counseling to minister to my needs when I was so anxious I didn't want to do anything, He will deliver me again if/when anxiety strikes.

If God comforted and guided me and my husband when we couldn't understand or help our child with her problems, He will provide again the next time we fall before him desperately in our parenting.

If God can do all those things for me, HE WILL DO ALL THOSE THINGS FOR YOU.

Jesus told his disciples at the last supper to eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him. I think He did this for them. I imagine Him resting in the comfort his friends would receive when they ate the bread in the future days and remembered how Jesus overcame death. 

Because Jesus knew the future, he asked them to bookmark the past.

By remembering what He conquered, they could have hope. In their most desperate days when in prison and persecuted they could remember Jesus' words and the promise that death doesn't win.

Jesus conquering the ultimate defeater shows us that in our darkest battle, we can hope.

2020 has been a dark year, for some much more than I will ever understand. And now here we are in December singing Joy to the World and stringing lights. The celebration almost seems like that annoyingly optimistic friend that glosses over your pain. Kind of like Cindy Loo Hoo to the Grinch.

However, the light of Christmas doesn't shine because there is no present darkness.

It shines to illuminate a way through the darkness.

It shines not because of what is but instead because of what was and what is to come.

John 1:9

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

I pray you find hope in the light of Christ this season.

When you're path forward looks blurry, remember to look back.

P.S. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear how God has worked in your past to give you hope for the future! Please drop a comment below.