When You Think All Hope is Lost

We were sitting at a traffic light, waiting for the green, one of those moments when it appears that it is never going to change for our direction.  I glanced up from the inside of the car to our surroundings.  A restaurant that went out of business during covid stood forlorn and friendless on the other corner.  On the other side, a barbecue take-out was doing quite a business on the site of an abandoned gas station.  I glanced to my right -- just 10 yards outside my window -- at an antique resale shop with an empty parking lot. 

 And there it was.

 

 

Just leaning up on an old park bench, H-O-P-E in capital letters, just waiting for me to notice.

How much do we miss because we are not even looking? 

Despair shouts, "Give up!  It's all over.  There is no escape or meaning." Circumstances win.

But hope whispers, "Trust God in this. It is not the end of the story."  God redeems.

The world defines hope as a rather fragile form of wishful thinking, something to outgrow, a mocking hostility.   But the Bible reveals hope as the underlying reality on which we can stake our lives, no matter the circumstances. 

We miss the wonder and the glory because we do not trust God in this, "not counting on any outcome, but counting on God." (Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night)

The rocks in my life are just intricate parts of my faith story, the times when I have realized who God is.  We would not be reluctant if we knew how God is using what is before us today.

God will not just "show up," as some say.  God is already here in unlikely circumstances, present with us in unexpected ways, already working His seamless designs, continually redeeming what we cannot understand, and calling ourselves to Him.  His steadfast love has no expiration date, His mercies are piping fresh every morning.  Hope is right there looking at you.

But this I call to mind,

    and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

         great is Your faithfulness.

"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,

"therefore I will hope in Him."

                       Lamentations 3. 21-24