Hope...in What?

I was recently talking with a friend over text message about a situation and she mentioned she wanted to be hopeful about it all, but she really wasn't.  I knew what she meant as most do when they use that word.  I wish what I want to happen happens.  I understand the way we use this phrase, but when hope is deferred and your heart is sick (Prov. 13:12), you need to right your mind to the Truth - colloquialisms be damned.

So, in speaking with my friend who was in a tender spot, I wanted to encourage her, but in a way that was real and meaningful.  Would I love to say, yes, hope for it, it will happen.  Sure, but she and I both know that is just a nice thing to say.  Children hope for Santa to bring them what they want.  Whether they get what they want or not the hope is always misplaced.  Hope in something does not bring it about.

It was with this sensitivity I wanted to give encouragement without dismissing the struggle with a well wishing equivalent of Happy New Year or Merry Christmas.  So,  I have an excerpt of my response to her below.  I've been thinking about it for some time, and it seems this response was an overflowing of the perfect storm of standing with a friend while admitting my own struggle to hope in what is truly worthy of hope.

"I understand the battle to remain hopeful.  I'm going to redeem that word in my own mind this year.  I'm going to choose hope that God will make it as it should be.  That if I hate it, it's still better than what I want because He sees it all.   That if these hands are empty all my live long days, my soul will be filled with His presence and that if I seek Him I will find Him, and to know Him more each day is a hope that will be realized if I look for Him.  So be hopeful in the right things while praying at times through tears because we don't know what He will do with our desires.  It's all normal, He knows..."

Please when you encourage someone, make certain it is founded in what is true and not what you want to be true.  I recently told someone, I don't want to hear what I want to hear, I want to hear what I need to know.  The same goes for encouragement.  Disappointment isn't something to be pushed off for another time.  Why do we purposefully postpone healing?  Instead, let's be brothers and sisters that help one another develop the skills for life that will be implemented in gladness and sorrow, all the while hoping in Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2).  

Stacy Rapp ©