Sometimes Hope Sucks…

It is in the still small, lonely moments when we come face to face with a lingering trace of hope.  It is in those moments when it seems all hell is about to break loose that, with a pinkie finger, we cling onto that last thread, praying it doesn’t snap.  We pray.  We cry out.  We make ultimatums.  We wait.  Thanks Tom Petty for reminding us that the “waiting is the hardest part.”  

I remember many occasions clinging to that last, frail thread of hope.  
One moment still sticks out in my mind even after all these years.  
My Great-Grandmother suffered a life-threatening issue on my thirteenth birthday.  My father took her to the hospital, it didn’t look good. I remember praying earnestly for her…I felt as if God didn’t listen.  Sometimes hope sucks.  She passed away soon after and hope’s thin, frail thread seemed to snap in my hands.  It hurt.  It sucked.

Another occasion >>

With tears streaming down my cheeks, I was trying to comfort my wife at the news of her mother’s tragic accident.  How earnestly I prayed that God would provide us a miracle in the midst of horrific circumstances…He didn’t.  She didn’t make it.  We were devastated.  It hurt.  Pain was immense.  Sadness entered our hearts like a flood.  Hope totally and completely sucked that night as wave after wave of grief swept over our family.  We didn’t get the answer we were praying for.  The frail, shredded thread snapped in our hands, yet something else took hold.  We felt the prayers of others.  Literally felt them.  We were being upheld, carried, protected, comforted, assured and loved.    Hope sucked…

But…

Hope isn’t always about getting what we want.
Hope isn’t always about God answering our prayers the way that we want Him to. 
Hope isn’t even about God delivering us from situations in this life…I wish it did, but it doesn’t always happen. 

Sometimes hope. just. sucks…yet…another question rises up in my heart.
Another pondering takes place and is formed in the brain and attempts to reserve carefully placed words on the tongue to inevitably chew on and spit out.  

The question?  

Here it is>> So what?  
The follow-up question that rings out like a loud, noisy bell in my heart
is this >> Even then can you still persevere in your faith?

The Answer?
Is amazingly – “YES“.  

Because...
                  >Sometimes hope life sucks.  
                  >Sometimes things do not always go according to OUR plan.
                  >Sometimes God chooses to answer our prayers differently from what we had hoped.
                  >My faith doesn’t revolve around ME getting everything that I want.  
                  >Despite life’s circumstances and the temporal nature of this life I serve an eternal God who has an eternal plan 
                    for me.  
                  >I know in Whom I have Believed!  

The Apostle Paul believed this way too, I’m convinced of it.  He believed despite hope and life sucking royally.  Not life with God, but circumstances beyond his control.  Oppression sucked.  Beatings sucked.  Not life with His Savior, but with imprisonment and chains and even death. Despite all of these things which totally and completely sucked, he persevered and carried on.  

Can we carry on?  
Even when our notion of “hope” doesn’t pan out?  
Even when our prayers seem to go unanswered?
Even when hope has run out the backdoor and you’re left in a house that is burning to the ground around you?  

Circumstances and our perception of hope can seriously suck sometimes…but can we carry on?  
Can we persevere? 
Can we press on in our steadfast faith?  

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proven genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed...”  1 Peter 1:3-8
 

How is your faith today?  
Can you stand firm despite hope sucking royally sometimes?  
Can we persevere?  

Something more for us to ponder today!