By Rev. Heather Wright
If you’re like me, your life has included a series of high and lows. There have been times of great heartache and loss in many areas of my life. In one of the lowest moments, I told a friend, “The word hope feels like a four-letter word right now. It hurts. I don’t like hope.” Hope asks me to push ahead, to not quit and run away from a challenge, and to want better for tomorrow than I am experiencing today. Hope is risky, it means being willing to get hurt again, to fail, to long for something that may or may not arrive. Hope is hard.
Hope is something we might assume people of faith would have in abundance. However, life in a broken and fallen world can be difficult for everyone. The Bible says, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Suffering is indiscriminate and universal.
So, what do you hope for? Are there areas in your life that you’ve given up hoping? What’s the alternative? To not be a person of hope is to be apathetic and even despairing. It is to cease to live fully, or as Jesus put it, to have life abundant (John 10:10).
In order to have more hope, I realize that it really matters what we put our hope in. Do we hope in ourselves, our own strength, smarts, earning power or able bodies? Do we put all our hope in another person, a parent, child or spouse? That person is human and therefore imperfect and will let us down. Bearing all our hope, is too much to ask from a mere mortal. We were designed for more, for a relationship with another who is worthy of all our hope, faith and confidence.
At our church, we just finished a five-week series on the book of Revelation. For Christians, this is a book full of symbols and mystery, of angels, battles, lampstands, a beast, a lake of fire, a tree of life, a wedding banquet and a resplendent city of peace. Most people avoid this book for a Bible study because there is so much about it that cannot be easily understood or explained. It is a book that appeals more to our imagination than our reason. However, the bottom line is clear. There will be a day, when King Jesus returns and has ultimate victory over all that is evil, broken and unjust, and a new heaven and a new earth will reign. He will set all things right and bring perfect justice to all that is broken, evil, and seeking to destroy life. Those who trust in God and receive his gift of salvation co-reign with him as well. All are invited to the banquet table, as the bride of the King of heaven who is also the lion and the lamb. We know in our hearts that we long for a place where all is made well, whole, free, healed. CS Lewis put it, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” The book of Revelation gives a window into that other world.
In preparing for my sermons, one scripture has continued to reset my day and to remind me what I put my hope in. It grounds me in the spiritual reality that is beyond what I can see directly. John begins his letter to the churches with these words, “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come” (Rev. 1:4). He puts his hope in the God who IS and who WAS and who is TO COME. He’s outside of time. I find the order significant. God is not described chronologically “was and is and is to come.” But this line begins with who “is”. The focus is on God in the present moment, now. What this tells me is that God is with us now no matter what we are dealing with today. God “is” with us. In our joys and sorrow, on our good days and hard ones, when we are troubled, despairing, sick or celebrating.
On hard days, I hold onto hope from the God who is above all and in this present moment. I am comforted and encouraged knowing Jesus is here and now in everything. God was with me in the past and looking back I can gain strength from his faithfulness. That memory can rekindle my faith today. God will be – my hope and future are secure in his hands. That is the God who loves me and invites me to more. He is and was and is to come and invites you on this journey of hope as well.
The Rev. Dr. Heather Wright is a Transitional Co-Lead Pastor at Stanwich Church. She is also a licensed therapist, board certified chaplain and author of four books. For more information, visit heatherpwright.com.
