Soaring Hearts

I've always wondered why the word "hope" is used to represent our inheritance in God's promises. The word appears too fragile and tenuous to support the full concept of who our faith is placed in. I just doesn't seem to express the certainty of fulfillment embodied in God's character. I guess that is just the attitude of someone who has seen Him in action for a while. Or, perchance, it could mean I am still lacking in a mature understanding of Him "through whom we live and move, and and have our being."

At first hearing, hope is the news that there is more to life than what we have around us and what we see with our eyes. It is the shock of the light in the darkness of our world, that lifts up our startled head. Hope is the spark that lights up the raging flame of love within us. No more dogged, weary step on the "firm foundation of unyielding despair."

For those of us who have been at this business for seeming forever, who are still exposed to the wounding, exhausting world, hope changes it's face. The face (of Jesus) becomes more reliable, immovable, and is the face of our now expectation. Since our hope is in Him, it becomes about a God who brings good from evil itself. He rewrites the script of our lives to "write straight with crooked lines." The reality of things that have happened is turned inside out. Pain becomes beauty, and suffering becomes an expression of ultimate love. Hope is actualized victory, no matter the cost, and notwithstanding all the circumstances. We know He is greater than all this. Hope shocks us anew because it is always fresh, always astonishing in it's extravagance of joyful, heartfelt response.

How could something so precious and wonderful be so durable, being as it is, born out of the midst of despair, and flowering, as it does, in the experiencing of adversity? The paradox of His power is revealed! These defining moments are exposing, not who we are or what life is, but more of who God is. Because of who we trust, we are invincible in our weakness, and richly blessed in our need. While we still struggle here, our heart has been freed to soar on twin wings of hope and joy!