Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Sacredness of Hope

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Hope by Martin Gommel

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn. J.R.R. Tolkien The Return of the King

Dark was the night

It chased so hard

 

Wild storms thrashed

Upon my soul

 

Questions raged

Answers unfound

 

Prayers formed

and argued aloud

 

Christ stands

Tears flow down

 

A break of light

A glow in the sky

 

I kneel

He steels

My heart once more

 

Cold winds that blew once

Now at my back

I reach out with hope

 

A Love

A life

A Saviour to be known

There is a sacredness to hope.

Something quite intangible happens at the darkest turning points of our lives. We find a friend who invites us to trust in him, that he knows the way, and that he has walked this walk and can help us too.

Jesus, right from birth, knew that his end would be in agonising pain. The physical pain of tortured death and the relational pain of abandonment.

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us this

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

Jesus had a hope of sitting as one who had overcome. He endured everything that was thrown at him because he knew there was something worth far more than the present pain.

Hope is the alluring song of the future, and faith is dancing me towards it.

Some quotes to consider

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.
Anonymous

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hope is the feeling that the feeling you have isn't permanent. Jean Kerr

Believe that there's light at the end of the tunnel. Believe that you might be that light for someone else. Kobi Yamada

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up. Anne Lamott

How does hope play a part in your everyday life?

Barry Pearman

Image by Martin Gommel Creative Commons Flickr