I'm about to talk about hope again. Because, dear friends, I need constant guidance and very frequent reminders (and maybe you do too) when it comes to the elusive and terrifying concept of hope.
Hope.
It sounds beautiful. Completely harmless. Wonderful even. But I'm terrified of it. The deepest core of my sinful being fights against hope as if it were deadly. Fact is, hope has burned me. Some of my darkest and most difficult times in life have been caused by disappointed hopes. I hoped to have an exemplary Senior year, filled with wonderful memories. I hoped to be the star of the high school stage. I hoped to have plenty of time with my grandfather. I hoped for a smooth and easy exit form high school. I hoped for an amazing and promising Freshman year of college. I hoped to make tons of close friends. I hoped that one relationship would be forgotten. I hoped that another would be secure. I hoped to spend my summer with my closest friends, having a blast.
You know what? None of it turned out as I'd hoped.
So I swore off hoping (which I've done before, and it never works). I told myself that things never work out right if I from hopes and expectations, so there's no point in hoping. Then one morning last week, I woke with the words of a verse on my heart. I didn't know what verse it was, or what the exact words were, but I'd read it before. "Suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope." It was stuck swimming around in my head. I went on with my morning routine, checking email and facebook. One of my friends had posted a scripture reference as their status: Romans 5:1-5. Upon looking it up, I saw these words:
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
How incredible. The words that I knew but couldn't find were pointed out to me by the most unlikely of sources. But wait, there's more. One of the "sufferings" that was weighing on me had to do with my boyfriend. I texted him and told him to look up the verses when he got the chance. He replied saying that they had been the subject of a Bible Study his OAFC Travel Team did that morning.
Amazing miraculous story aside, these are great verses. It sounds like something your parents would say, doesn't it? "Suffering builds character." It's true though! When we go through hard times in our lives, we almost always come out stronger in some way. We learn how to cope. We learn how to live. We place our hope in better things. That, I believe, is the biggest lesson I learned here. I was hoping for some very selfish things, and they will always disappoint. When we hope in God, and hope for his blessings (even if they come through pain, something I talk about more in the post right before this one), he never fails. He gives us his unfailing love, the kind of love that inspires us and is the very best we can hope for. During every night we have the hope of a sunrise, and every day the light comes to chase away the darkness.
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