Hope | Ed’s Inspirations
Optimism and hope are radically different attitudes. Optimism is the expectation that things -the weather, human relationships, the economy, the political situation and so on- will get better. Hope is the trust that God will fulfill God's promises to us that leads us to true freedom. The optimist speaks about concrete changes in the future. The person of hope lives in the moment with the knowledge and trust that all of life is in good hands. All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth and Jesus all lived with a promises in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what that would look like. Let's live with hope. -Henry Nouwen
On my prayer walk in Chilliwack last week I was challenged to hope for myself and others. I said a prayer for the people associated with the brick and mortar of the Vineyard and Mainstreet Churches. As I walked I strove to focus on the space really close around me. I felt God encouraging me to wait, to allow His closeness to be felt. He let on that He liked me a lot, quite a bit actually and that as I walked, I could be with Him and that He was eager to be with me. Living in the real, in the now. An existential moment to allow living water to permeate, to infiltrate, to seep, even flood into the spirit. I was encouraged to wait and hope blossomed from the concrete sidewalk. I know waiting is not an excuse for inaction though, however there is a waiting for hope that can slowly fill, it burbles and percolates, it anticipates and then it overflows! I walked a big circle around the core of town, every week I include an extra block or two. Later I thought it looked like a big corral. Sometimes contentment-joy feels like inaction, ineffectiveness. Yet I felt the Almighty got it! I felt no fear, no hurry, no angst, no need to produce, just presence. He not only endorsed my walk of trust and hope, He modelled it. Jesus moved in directions away from the crowds, to be with the Father. Do you wonder like me what that actually looked like? What would my contemplation of hope look like this day?
As I slowly walked a circle around the downtown hub I encountered one person that was parked in my path. She was sitting on a small pack. I'll call her Linda. She initiated an exchange as I slowed. She was happy for my awesomeness, I told her I felt sad that she didn't feel well, she declined an offer of food but responded to an offer of coffee. After some chit chat I offered to pray for us. She stood for prayer, I prayed short and then said I didn't know exactly what to pray for (both to her and God). I told her that God knew precisely what our needs were and of His good intentions toward us, she nodded in agreement, then we waited a few short moments in silence. I received a short wistful smile that easily penetrated my heart and went to a good place, well, good and bad. Can two human strangers have communion? Yes of course. Perhaps in places where our lives are found as needy and the extraneous falls away, in places where fallenness is exposed and truth is revealed. It offers hope that simple connection can light up our existence, but perhaps highlights what is missing and the inadequacy, even tragedy of accepting or being ensnared in an inferior reality. Perhaps it opens a wound of longing for lost family and broken relationships. That is so hard! Perhaps this lovely communion reminds us of harm done to us or ways we live that are still destructive to ourselves and others. Light can hurt.
Also hers was a face that melted a heart of dry-toast-crustiness, my heart.....showed up my shallow, unclean, unholy efforts. This smile was God looking into my soul, my duplicitous ways, my superficial engagement and journey. While not a guilt trip it was good to be challenged and to be offered hope that my own motivation could be monitored and tweaked. That God could teach through and perhaps especially from the least of these.
What does simple, pure hope have to offer us? Will my Christian efforts result in a radically changed life, will my goodwill cause Linda to have a dramatic heartfelt change in direction for her life? The evangelist might say I didn't tell her about Jesus, the prophet might tell me I didn't convict her of sin. The cynic in my own heart might tell me she wasn't worth my time and anyway nothing happened. Hope-less. Yes surely, my eyes and heart are clouded by the failure to see as God sees. Clouded by my easy acceptance of hurt and living in dis-ease as normal. I walked away and she was still the afflicted. The challenge was too great. I was just playing...ugh! This world seems unsavable.
NO! Cynicism needs to be challenged as accepting a false reality. On this day hope lived as a kind of strength that allowed and even propelled me to find hope for this woman. Did she know the value and worth of her person to the most loving and gentle Creator. Did she know He yearned for her company? At the very least I could live with the promise that God would guide her to a place in which she would find herself the beloved, that she would find herself in a place of renewed fellowship with those she once knew, that she would have hope of an existence without the agony of pain. I had hope because I knew that God is exceedingly good and that He is trustworthy. Is He even better than that? YES! This is where I live, here and now...I don't have to know what this future (for Her) looks like. What I mean is I don't have to see how it happens and I don't have to be part of it. I trust Him, I have hope. God said hope and wait. What does the future look like, oh yes. Hopeful! It just does! Because of Him. He is good all the time.
Psalms 9:18, NLT
"But God will never forget the needy, the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed. He is our hope, our hope is alive".
-Ed