What You Put Your Hope In

It's common knowledge among The Churchgoing that the thing you should put your hope in is the Lord.  I have heard the stories and the scriptures, the testimonies and the tragedies, and I know that at the end of the day there is nothing worth my hope but God Himself.  But I'll be damned if I don't go ahead and put my hope in a lot of other things each and every day.

These days my hope is often in an idea I have for a business.  A friend and I have been putting meat on the bones of this idea for over a month now, and in that short period of time I'll bet I've put my hope in three different versions of the idea.  I am classically the kid building sandcastles.  And not small, dismissible constructions either.  We're talking intricate assemblies of sand built to impress.

Hear me though when I say that sandcastle building is a worthwhile activity.  Jesus said that we shouldn't build our houses on foundations of sand because they will wash away.  I completely agree, which is why I try not to build sandcastles to live in.  I look at my little dreams and aspirations that I've built (and am building) on shifting foundations as models of what could be.  If they endure, then I should probably build a bigger one.  If they go out with the tide then hopefully I've learned something.

In effect I'm talking about daydreaming; about imagining what you could do if you had the wherewithal and grace to go do it.  Daydreaming is step one to getting anything accomplished.  However, just like sandcastles, you can't put your hope in daydreams.  My daydream is to open a brewpub in my hometown, but my hope is in God no matter how the daydream shakes out.

Two dangers lie in placing your hope anywhere but in the Lord.  The first is that you'll get what you've hoped for and, in the meantime, miss out on God.  The second danger is that you'll get your heart broken. 

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick" is what the scripture says in Proverbs 13:12, and the image here is more literally of hope "drawn out."  That is: drawn thin, dragged along, stretched taut until the hope in no way resembles what it once was.  Let me assure you that what Solomon is referring to here is misplaced hope.  If your hope is in the Lord, it will never be deferred.  As the Psalmist says, "For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust."  You never get heartsick if your hope is in God because He is trustworthy.  It's safe to put your hope in God because He is our hope; He is both the source and the object of hope.

But you could very well arrive at the same heartsick place if your hope is misplaced and is not deferred.  This is the place of the triumph of the flesh and the bankruptcy of the spirit, where we get what we want but miss out on what God has to give.  And in many ways this is a more dangerous place to be, mostly because you'll be convinced that you did it yourself.  It's easier to get to God from a low place than from a high one.  In fact, the best way to get a fresh glimpse of God is from Rock Bottom.

What you put your hope in will determine what you allow yourself to become.  Rest assured that if you put your hope in man, or in your own hands, or in the next big idea, that you'll come out heartsick on the other side.  But as a reminder of the good things God has for us if we put our hope in Him, here is the other half of Proverbs 13:12.

"But a desire fulfilled is a tree of life."