Why Hope Has Never Made Sense To Me
For years, one of my favorite Bible verses has been Romans 15:13,
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Maybe I've liked this verse so much because it has always had an element of mystery to it.
Whenever I reflect on this verse, my question has consistently been, "May overflow with hope for what?"
Hope has never made sense to me because my Christian upbringing has preached the message of contentment louder than the message of hope. Or at least, more fully and clearly than hope's.
I've been left asking: If I must be content, how can I hope? How to balance this paradox in the Christian faith has never been quite clear to me.
We are always admonished to hope for the Kingdom come, Christ's return, or the good work that will be done in us through our desert season.
Things that are guaranteed and eternal.
It makes sense to hope for things that we have been promised by our Creator. But, what about things that aren't guaranteed and aren't eternal?
What if I'm hoping for a job?
A date?
Happiness when I'm stuck in sadness?
For my mom's breast cancer to go away?
For that college to accept me?
Are these earthly things what I must be content with or without? And are my hopes only to be made of the eternal?
That answer never seemed right to me.
I think the answer to all these confusing "what can I and what can I not hope for" questions can only be found if we understand what it means to have a relationship with the God of hope.
For one main reason: having a relationship with God (as opposed to a Christian "lifestyle") means that we are equipped with the Holy Spirit who guides us on our hoping journeys.
And we will find that the Holy Spirit prompts us to hope for both things on earth and for things eternal.
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At this particular Christmas Eve service, among the myriad of songs sung, one stuck out to me.
It was about Jesus forsaking every perfect thing He knew to come down to us.
"Mansion to manger."
I had heard this message a million times, yet, I mulled over the lyrics like they were telling me something I'd never heard before.
As candles were passed around and the lights dimmed, I realized that there had been something I'd been missing about the beauty of the Gospel and, ultimately, the character of the God of hope.
I never truly understood why sin is so bad, why the Devil is our mortal enemy, and why God is so firm that we follow His commandments and live by His Spirit. Sure I knew that sin is offensive to God and that we are designed to praise Him and let the Spirit conform us to Christ's likeness...
But I didn't know why God cared so much that we be rid of sin.
It's because He can't stand to be separated from us. And sin creates that separation.
After the service I imagined a conversation between Father and Son as they formulated their plan to save their beautiful world from sin's rude interruption. Theology of the Trinity, God's sovereinty and omnipotence aside, here's how I imagined that conversation going:
(background: sin has entered the world and every one in Heaven and on earth is still recovering from the shock.)
"Son, come here I want to talk to you.
I'm sure you've seen what's been going on.
Because I've seen you crying and I've cried too.
Let's talk about what we should do.
Father, I've never known pain.
How can these people live with it everyday?
I miss walking in love in the garden and they miss me too.
What can we do?
We both know love cuts deeper than pain.
And a love poured out is never in vain.
So, Son, if pain were the cost and you'd have to miss me too,
would you miss me so they wouldn't have to?
Father, I'm afraid.
I've never not known your face.
But, my fear inside is so multiplied with every tear I see
shed by someone who misses me
that I'll give the only love that can dispel
and replace a curse with a spell of peace.
Dad, I'll miss you.
Son, I'll miss you too.
What tears I shed and what cries I cry will only multiply
a love that can dispell a curse for a spell of peace."
God missed us. And He gave Jesus our deserved punishment to end the separation, to give us the chance to walk in love with Him again, and to be near Him for eternity like we were created to be.
Just let that sink in: Christ endured separation from God (Hell) so we wouldn't have to. In Heaven, Jesus never knew a day without God's awesome presence. Then He suddenly found Himself pinned to a piece of wood and out from under God's loving gaze.
The brutality of the cross was nothing compared to the hoplessness of being covered in sin and knowing that God wasn't smiling on Him.
It's shameful the way we as Christians can lead our Christian lives following God's commands but completely missing the awesomeness of a relationship with Him.
That's the point of Calvary: that we have hope of a relationship with Him and hope to experience God's loving, guiding power at all times.
Hope is hidden without knowledge and acceptance of this relationship because 1.) eternal things that the Bible tells us to hope for seem bland otherwise and 2.) we have no guiding mechanism for our earthly hopes.
1.)
Why do I bother hoping for Christ's return if I'm not dying to see Him? If I don't miss Him like He misses me?
Why do I bother hoping for the good work that Christ will do in me through my pain if I don't desire above all else to become like Him?
Why hope for anything eternal if eternity with God doesn't sound too exciting?
If we treat our Christian faith like a lifestyle instead of a relationship, hope for eternity doesn't make sense and we don't have it.
Not only does hope not make sense for eternity, but our Christian "lifestyle" doesn't even allow the Holy Spirit to direct our earthly hopes.
2.)
Again, Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of hope fill your with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
The Spirit we get when we enter into a relationship (not a lifestyle) with God trains us in our hopes for both things eternal and things earthly.
God is the God of hope, we are filled with joy and peace when we trust Him, and His Spirit fills us with a reward of hope. Romans 15:13 is very clear that we only attain hope, joy, and peace if we are in relationship with Him and are communing with His Holy Spirit.
How the Spirit helps with earthly hopes:
Here is where I think a lot of us Christian's get it wrong.
We have this unspoken belief that the Holy Spirit will only guide us to hope for eternal things and so if we hope for earthly things, God won't guide us or bless us in that hope.
This is a lie.
Hope ferociously for things you want on earth.
It's ok to hope for those things because God is involved with us on earth and likes to bless us.
God didn't just say, "In this world you will have trouble sucks for you." He said, "But fear not, I have overcome the world."
God didn't just say, "For I so loved the world I can't wait until you all die and come back." He said, "So I sent my only begotten Son to save you and I sent my Spirit to live in you."
He didn't just say, "Go and make disciples of all the nations where you'll be sheep among wolves...careful." He said, "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
The God of hope is very present and active on this earth which gives us permission to hope for earthly things.
But, how do we know when we should let our earthly hopes change to either something eternal or to some other earthly thing?
The Holy Spirit will prompt us to stop hoping for something specific when there is something different to hope for.
God's silence does not signal us to stop waiting and hoping.
Too many Christians jump off the hope boat during the waiting season because nothing happens so they assume it's a no from God.
God answers no with something different for us, not with silence.
So hope for whatever you want and hope knowing that God is with us and for us, but keep your heart open for something else He wants you to hope for.
If He is with us, then He is loving us, sanctifying us, protecting us, blessing us, providing for us, giving us joy, comforting us, and guiding us. We can hope for things now because His Spirit is guiding us and is powerful now.
How the Holy Spirit helps with our eternal hopes:
Because God is the God of hope, His Spirit will help us fall more in love with Him so that the things we hope for most strongly are things eternal.
To be ever in His presence. To be a perfect ambassador of His character. To want to erase our plans and be filled with His. To advance His Kingdom.
Briefly, here is how the Spirit works this miracle in us.
1. We need to be willing to get our eyes up off ourself and our world.
This involves a huge amount of surrender.
We need to work to be ok with an earthly life without anything we hope for so the Spirit can show us how much more eternal things satisfy.
When we truly take the time to look up and see what God's got going on instead of what I hope will be going on in my life, He is infinitely more attractive than even the best things in life.
We may never look down again.
But gravity makes it hard to keep our eyes up on the one that actually deserves our full attention.
2. The good news is that it gets easier as the Holy Spirit makes the things of God look more and more attractive.
I can't explain this and I don't think anyone can. It just happens. The attitude and desire that wants God is just suddenly in us as we pray for it wholeheartedly. Praise the Lord. Amen.
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If you're trapped in the "lifestyle" of Christianity, hope may not make sense to you either. But as we all step closer to an irresistable God who wants to know us deeply, hope will begin to make sense for every area of life. And it will overflow by the power of His Spirit.