Hope Is...
/A smattering of really smart, deeply moving, and spiritually profound descriptions on hope (from Dan Allender's The Healing Path). Instead of reading through these quickly, savor them like a fine wine...
- When hope dies, vitality, passion, and creativity are lost.
- Waiting stirs the soul's deep struggle with hope. We think it pleasant to hope, but in fact, nothing is more difficult than to hope. Hope lifts us up and gives us a view of how much ground must still be traveling on our journey. It allows us to see the horizon, usually far beyond our reach.
- God lets us wait - not to punish us, not because he has forgotten us, but because our waiting is the crucible he uses to purify our hope for him.
- Biblical hope leads one to wait with eager patience.
- Hope makes us playful, free, and inventive. Hope is not naive desire but a calculated risk that declares, whatever the loss, it is better than remaining where we are.
- When the storms come, we typically respond to them by raging against the gale or turning away from the loss, resigned and despondent. Most choose the latter option, because once we relinquish desire the loss does not seem so severe. But resignation is always a betrayal, not only of desire but also hope. Hope is the quiet, sometimes incessant call to dream for the future...Hope cannot be killed, not ever, but it can be drugged numb and sleepy...Biblical hope is substantial faith regarding the future. Hope looks at the shattered remnants of the soul hit by the storm and envisions not merely rebuilding, but rebuilding a life that has even more purpose and meaning than existed before the loss.
...and I'm only a little more than half way through the book! I may blog on some of this more later. But today I pray for you and me that when storms of pain head our way that we would choose to rage against the gale and fight for home. And as we fight for hope that we'd become more playful, free, inventive, creative, and passionate people. More of who we were created to by. Knowing more of the one who created us.
