Spring is finally here!
Really?
It's that time of year when winter refuses to go away and stay gone. One day you're digging in the bottom of the closet for last year's flip flops and the next day you're thanking the good Lord that you forgot to take your wool coat to the cleaners because you need to wear it to church. Just today three of my friends in three different states posted pictures online of freshly fallen snow.
It's also that time of year when your co-workers, friends and family all seem to be competing for "Grouch of the Year." (You would compete too, but somebody's got to be the judge, right?) I believe the grouchiness is directly related to winter's lingering and spring's procrastination. I've not talked to one person lately who said they wished the temperatures would stay below 20 year round. Everyone I know is sick and tired of the unstable weather. They are ready for spring to come and stay. Me too!
The other day as I pondered humanity's longing for warmer days, the word "hope" stuck in my brain. We all hope with certainty that more springlike weather will eventually come and stay for a while! If everyone's nerves are so raw now, when they know within reason that spring IS coming, think how grumpy they would be if they had no hope of winter coming to an end. Things would be getting ugly!
I know surely I've written about hope before (in my old blog) so forgive me if I repeat myself, but I never grow tired of talking about hope. Why? Because hope and faith are so intertwined you can't pull them apart. And without either of them, well, life would not be worth living and death would be even worse!
I love words with their many definitions and connotations.When I look up hope for close examination, I find varied definitions. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Really?
It's that time of year when winter refuses to go away and stay gone. One day you're digging in the bottom of the closet for last year's flip flops and the next day you're thanking the good Lord that you forgot to take your wool coat to the cleaners because you need to wear it to church. Just today three of my friends in three different states posted pictures online of freshly fallen snow.
It's also that time of year when your co-workers, friends and family all seem to be competing for "Grouch of the Year." (You would compete too, but somebody's got to be the judge, right?) I believe the grouchiness is directly related to winter's lingering and spring's procrastination. I've not talked to one person lately who said they wished the temperatures would stay below 20 year round. Everyone I know is sick and tired of the unstable weather. They are ready for spring to come and stay. Me too!
The other day as I pondered humanity's longing for warmer days, the word "hope" stuck in my brain. We all hope with certainty that more springlike weather will eventually come and stay for a while! If everyone's nerves are so raw now, when they know within reason that spring IS coming, think how grumpy they would be if they had no hope of winter coming to an end. Things would be getting ugly!
I know surely I've written about hope before (in my old blog) so forgive me if I repeat myself, but I never grow tired of talking about hope. Why? Because hope and faith are so intertwined you can't pull them apart. And without either of them, well, life would not be worth living and death would be even worse!
I love words with their many definitions and connotations.When I look up hope for close examination, I find varied definitions. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Hope
1: to desire with expectation of obtainment
2: to expect with confidence : trust
How often do we "hope" for something without actually having an expectation of obtainment? Sadly I'm afraid I express that kind of hope too often. Honestly, hope without confident expectation is nothing more than wishful thinking. Wishing is not equal to hoping.
I can't imagine trying to make it through this life with nothing but a handful, or even a cargo ship full of wishes. The hope that the Bible talks about in 1 Peter 1:3 and in Hebrews 11:1 is not the coins tossed in a fountain kind of hope. It's the confident and trusting kind of hope that produces something. Real hope involves faith and it involves action and eventually includes revelation.
You can click the link and read many different wordings of Hebrews 11:1 in another window, but the Aramaic Bible in Plain English states it so well I have to type it here.
I can't imagine trying to make it through this life with nothing but a handful, or even a cargo ship full of wishes. The hope that the Bible talks about in 1 Peter 1:3 and in Hebrews 11:1 is not the coins tossed in a fountain kind of hope. It's the confident and trusting kind of hope that produces something. Real hope involves faith and it involves action and eventually includes revelation.
You can click the link and read many different wordings of Hebrews 11:1 in another window, but the Aramaic Bible in Plain English states it so well I have to type it here.
Now faith is the conviction concerning those things that are in hope, as if it were these things in action, and the revelation of those things that are unseen;
Read that again. Outloud and slowly. Let the words seep into your mind. Read it over again and again until you "get" it. (Some of us may be here awhile and that's okay. This is important.)
Can we have real hope without faith? I can want something and want it A LOT. I can cross my fingers and "hope" I get it. But until I KNOW that thing I want is even possible for me to obtain, and I BELIEVE that somehow, someway I will be able to grab a hold of it, I will not apply action toward possession. Without faith, hope is an empty wish and that thing I hope (wish) for will never be realized.
It's complicated, I know. And I am certainly not claiming to be any great biblical scholar with supernatural or even learned insight and wisdom. I'm a simpleminded housewife who just happened to notice a perfect picture of hope sitting on her counter.
Can we have real hope without faith? I can want something and want it A LOT. I can cross my fingers and "hope" I get it. But until I KNOW that thing I want is even possible for me to obtain, and I BELIEVE that somehow, someway I will be able to grab a hold of it, I will not apply action toward possession. Without faith, hope is an empty wish and that thing I hope (wish) for will never be realized.
It's complicated, I know. And I am certainly not claiming to be any great biblical scholar with supernatural or even learned insight and wisdom. I'm a simpleminded housewife who just happened to notice a perfect picture of hope sitting on her counter.
It was one of those days that I and everyone I know, including my onions and garlic, was hoping for springtime. There they were, showing their confidence that temperatures would soon be warm enough to plant. They knew with certainty that springtime is a reality. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that though snow still fell, they were created to grow. They knew when all the elements of warm earth, water, and sunshine come together, the blooms, seeds, and life still unseen inside them would become reality. Their hope (confident expectation) was real. So real in fact that it produced action. They didn't wait until the subfreezing nights had passed before deciding to act upon their hope.
They, by faith, behaved as if the thing for which they hoped and in which they had confidence, had already come to pass, so that what was unseen, would be revealed.
They, by faith, behaved as if the thing for which they hoped and in which they had confidence, had already come to pass, so that what was unseen, would be revealed.
May we all have
the hope of an onion!