I, like every other person in this world, get hit with the obstacles of life. These obstacles bring on disappointments, setbacks, defeat, sorrow, or simply put, a loss of hope. Whether we like it or not, hope is what we as human beings rely on to survive. Whatever the hopes, they motivate performance, produce love, drive change, provide encouragement, and supply life. Hope is a beautiful thing.
Yet sadly, hope is something we tend to lose. The element of hope is shaky, because the things we hope in are unpredictable. When I was six, our family would go to the small local zoo quite frequently. I'd briefly pet the llamas, wave to the bears, and laugh at the monkeys, but when we got to the reptile exhibit all my motion quickly halted. For there before my eyes was a most majestic creature. The iguana. Unlike all the other animals he did nothing but sit on a branch basking under the glow of his heating lamp. I loved him though; with his quiet ways and long green tail. Week after week he was the reason I went back. One sunny visit I had just completed my rounds. Said hello to the polar bear playing with the red beach ball, greeted the dancing seals with an energetic applause, and was headed into the reptile house to visit my most mysterious friend of all. When my eyes had adjusted to the dim light though, my happiness suddenly seemed to match the dimness of the room. There was the snake still slowly slithering his tongue in and out of his mouth, and of course the lizards were still darting here and there with every movement they saw, but on the branch where the king of the exhibit used to lay, now rested a sign. A sign that caused me to lose all hope for our little zoo. My iguana had died along with my hope and love for the zoo.
More often than not, this is how we live. On highs and lows. One minute we are soaring on a hope and the next we are scrambling to find another. It's a devastating and exhausting cycle. Yet it’s one we are all guilty of repeating. The nonsensical part to the whole thing, is that we each have the choice to end the cycle. There is one thing that has never changed and never will. God. There is only one person whose promises we can trust. God's. There is only one person who truly has our best interests at heart. God. Way too often though we fall back on our foolish temporary hopes, thinking that maybe this time they will hold us up.
There was once a man named Abraham, who worked hard to honor God and have complete faith in Him. God saw this and promised to make Abraham's name great, by making him the forefather of many nations. By the time Abraham and Sarah (his wife) were at retirement age they still had no children. As all of us know, if you can't have children before you hit retirement, you're probably not going to have them after. Nevertheless, hope against hope, Abraham kept respect for God's promise and despite he and his wife's age, they had a son.
Life's rough and nobody is going to escape the pain of it. But we can escape complete hopelessness if we put our hope in the only One who is stable and unchangeable.
Romans 4:18-25
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be." Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. There it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
