SOLID HOPE

SOLID HOPE - the realistic kind

I saw my first snowdrop today looking lonely in my window box but it sparked my hope that the winter will end! I wonder what brings you hope?

Last year brought unparalleled grief and disappointment. This year brought hope in the vaccine but we remain shaken that a microscopic virus can wreak such havoc.

How can we be people of hope in this climate?

In circumstances yet more testing than ours – facing pain and death, Paul proclaimed, “Hope does NOT disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”

Here is a hope that will not disappoint because it is founded on God’s eternal love for us. Sadness won't last. Joy is the end of our story. That’s worth saying out loud.

This solid hope changes life.

Firstly, it helps us to grieve. We don't deny our disappointments and we still grieve but our sorrow doesn't descend into despair.

Secondly, it makes us resilient to handle the next blow that life deals us. Have you heard of the Stockdale Principle? It explains the difference between realistic hope and optimism. James Stockdale was held as a prisoner in the Vietnam war for 7 years being repeatedly tortured. He endured because he had deep faith that he could last the long haul. He explained that it was the short-term optimists who didn’t make it, the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' Christmas came and went. Then they'd say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go ....and it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart." Viktor Frankl described something very similar in the Nazi concentration camps where many prisoners died around Christmas time. They had set their hope on being out by then and died of despair when it didn’t happen.

Perhaps one reason that this last lockdown has felt so tough is because we thought it would all be over by Christmas and instead Christmas was cancelled. Thank God who offers us a solid hope that enables us to endure even when the circumstances don’t change. This hope that won’t disappoint, not like the easily-popped bubble of optimism.

This solid hope cannot be punctured by our circumstances. It is the hope that carried Christians in the early church through plague and persecution, not just to survive their circumstances but with an expectation that God would break into them with surpassing great power (Ephesians 1:19). Their hope of eternal life didn’t make them abdicate this life. Their hope spilled over and they gave their lives to care for the sick and to share Christ. What an example! I know that all around the country, Christians are doing that today.

We cannot manufacture this solid hope. Praise God who GIVES it to us as a gift. If your hope has dwindled, ask him for that gift today. The world is looking for hope. God wants to pour his love into our hearts by His Holy Spirit until our hope overflows.