The word that has been coming to me this week is hope. We all have hopes. Hopes for our children, our family, our friends, the world and even hopes for ourselves. We need hope whether we are getting ready to start something new or are living with the reality of the day. We all have times when we wonder how we will get beyond where we are. We hope that things will get better. We hope that there is something good, something more, something wonderful ahead.
Hope in the deepest sense of the word means assurance. Hope is the confident expectation that good will happen. Hope is essential. Scripture calls it “an anchor for the soul”. * An anchor gives us stability. A ship’s anchor keeps it safe and secure in calm waters or in the midst of a storm. When the anchor is in place, when something impacts the steadiness of the ship, it will dig in deeper. As troubles come and storms seem to persist in our lives we have an anchor. When you need it most, hope will be there.
I think that hope is also like a propeller. It is a force that drives us forward and allows us to keep going. Hope is not just a happy image of the future. It is an anchor grounded in the present and a force that enables us to keep moving forward. Hope helps propel us forward as we trust that all shall be well for we are in good hands.
We keep hope alive as we remember that God has always been and always will be, a strength beyond strength and a power greater than the heights and depths of all that is. Like David, the boy who killed the giant and was chosen to be the King of Israel we can “remember the wonderful works God has done”. ** There has never been and never will be a time when God is not with us. Hope is written into our bones. Hope is the force that pulls us into a future beyond what we know today; a way forward that leads to something good.
“Hope is a path on a mountainside. At first there is no path. But then there are people passing that way. And there is a path.”
Lu Xun
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* Hebrews 6:19
** Psalm 105:5
Reflect:
What does hope mean to you?