Guest Contributor: Gina Turnbull
Have you ever been told that you really should feel more optimistic? More hopeful? More positively confident about the future?
When the trials of life are hitting you from one side or another, this sort of “should” can feel more like a burden than an invitation.
Some of you may have felt that as a Christian, it is your duty to be optimistic, enthusiastic, and joyful! Perhaps the start of Advent is a good time to be reminded that Christian hope is not a calling to simply feel a certain way. Thankfully, it’s deeper than that.
If hope was simply a mental state of, “I’m sure it’ll all work out,” I’m not sure how we’d get through moments that feel impossibly dark and far from “working out.”
If we based our hope on what we see around us – on indicators telling us whether there is likely to be favourable results in the various areas of our lives – anxiety would step in to help us evaluate.
If our sense of hope was just a feeling, we may just eventually drop to the floor in exhaustion, heads in our hands, tired of waiting for proof that the optimism was worth it.
Jesus does not offer you this shallow version of hope today.
He holds a hope that has already been proven, over and over again, by His faithfulness to us (not the other way around). He offers a hope that lets your heart say, “Regardless of whether it all works out, it is well with my soul.” Your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3-4), the ultimate place of safety. There is no striving in this hope. There is only rest in Christ, who is life.
You can dwell in hope because your soul is tethered to an immovable force of love who has never once tired of running after you. You can dwell in hope because we know from the miracle of the incarnation that we have a God who comes to be with us in full vulnerability, ready with rolled-up sleeves to enter our mess.
Hope is remembering that you are not the main character of your story. Thankfully, the main character of our Story has already been raised to life and accomplished it all on our behalf. This unshakable love of God is already yours, and nothing can separate you from it (Romans 8:38-39).
Feel your shoulders relax as you picture our God of Hope holding the whole world in His hands. In His eyes you see a love for you that is unending.
As you go from this moment on to the rest of your day, take a deep breath with me.
Inhale…exhale.
On the next breath, practice a simple prayer:
Inhale: In You alone…
Exhale: …my hope is found.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:17-18).
