Hope is NOT Dead
When I am at home in the States, my regular morning routine is coffee time, devos, and occasionally looking across the yard as the sun comes up to watch for deer coming through to graze. One morning last week, the thickest fog I have ever seen covered the yard and obstructed my entire view. I was hoping that the fog would lift or maybe one of the deer would make its way closer, but the fog just lingered, and I missed my chance to see any deer that morning. As amazing as it was to see such a fog, I was a little agitated. As I was sitting in my regular early morning spot sipping my coffee, the words ‘hope deferred’ came to my mind. I kind of laughed at the thought that my hope to see the deer that morning was deferred or postponed to another day, but feeling intrigued to see if the Lord had something for me to learn, I flipped to Proverbs 13:12 to read the whole verse. Suddenly that small moment became more significant.
As I have personally been preparing my heart for Holy Week, I have wrestled with the word hope. I know in my head that hope is alive, and God is good, but for many mornings in a row lately, I have woken up with my heart feeling a bit sick, thinking of conversations I had the day before or posts on social media from friends in Haiti or just the latest news updates. If you have been following all the stories about Haiti over the last couple of weeks, then you know it is heavy and heartbreaking. To be honest, it can send me into a very unhealthy place of hopelessness, frustration, anger, and even feeling physically sick if I allow it to. As I write this letter, I feel that lump in my throat swelling and tears welling up in my eyes because I don’t want to feel this way, but I wrestle with it nonetheless.
That verse moved me to examine my heart that morning! I read it over and over in different translations and began to sob when I read, “When hope is crushed, the heart is crushed.” (GNT)
Crushed?! Yes, my heart is crushed for Haiti, but I cannot allow it to take over all hope. I am consistently humbled and learn from people who are literally living in chaos and don’t know if they will survive the night. So much heartache can be used by the enemy to try to steal whatever hope is left. He wants us all to question God’s plan, and he will take any opportunity to plant seeds of doubt that God is who He says He is. The enemy wants us to throw our hands up and try to take matters into our own hands, but we must wait on the Lord! I have heard from several people in Haiti who tell me they are without food and water, trapped with gunfire all around them, or hiding in a shelter to stay safe, but many of them end our conversations with one of these phrases: “Bondye bon—God is good.” “Bondye fidel—God is faithful.” “Bondye ka fè tout bagay—God can do everything.” “Nap tann Bondye—We wait on God.” As I have watched them struggle in waiting for Haiti to be better and to have a better life, I’ve been in awe of their faith and resilience.
The reality is that there are circumstances in our lives where hope is deferred, but if we allow it to, it can bring us closer to Jesus as we lean into His timing and trust in Him. We can choose to either grow in faith during our waiting or let hopelessness set in and take over.
This week, Haiti is experiencing the darkest Holy Week that we have ever witnessed, but the headline will always read ‘God remains on the throne.’ The greatest news that we can share is that Christ died on a cross and rose again to give us the hope of eternity, and no matter the circumstances, hope is not dead. The Bible is clear that in this life there will be trouble, but He has overcome the world! May we be reminded that when a dense fog rolls in and our view of what we want to see is obstructed and causes our hopes to be deferred, we can cling to the one true hope and know that “a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
As we all celebrate the days leading up to the greatest day in the lives of believers let’s “Rejoice in confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” Romans 12:12 NLT