Sometimes we get sad...sometimes it is only because we have misplaced our hope...

We Had Hoped

They are sad words.  I’ve read the story many times, but it really hit me this time.  Two men. Their friend was gone.  He had come and promised them a lot.  Even showed them how to improve their lives.  He had walked with them and now he was gone and they were alone.  They felt betrayed, even cheated and certainly weary.  As they discussed his departure, those sad words came out “we had hoped…”

How many of us can say the same words?  We had hoped.  We had hoped to own a house by now…  We had hoped to pay our child’s college tuition…  We had hoped to retire by now…  Or how about the more personal things in life?  I had hoped to be in a better job…  I had hoped to be married by this time in my life…  I had hoped to…  Sometimes we don’t even know where we lost the hope, but it is gone now.

Yes, it hits home with every one of us.  You’ve been there, haven’t you?  We have hopes and they get pushed off or totally destroyed.  They disappear and our heart aches.  You can see it in a child.  Promise them ice cream on a summer afternoon, and then tell them it will be tomorrow.  Hopes dashed.  Emotions clash.  Heart saddened.  Solomon tells us “hope deferred makes the heart grow weary”.  Isn’t that the truth!  One hope after another set aside for something less than what we expected.  Sometimes set aside for a time period, a season.  Sometimes set aside for a lifetime.  We had hoped.  Truly some of the saddest words to be uttered.

Those two men were so depressed that they did not see that the one they talked to was the one who had given them hope.  A weary heart does that to us sometimes.  Something has changed, yet we can’t see it.  We keep trying to see what we had wanted before and we miss the hope that is right in front of us.  We see only what we want to see.  Maybe it is what we had wanted all along and our eyes are so locked on it, we can’t move them.  Ever have that dream house and everything else looks too small or too plain?  Ever see that one person you want to marry and everyone else looks so normal?  In some cases, God is moving us on to another place in life, yet we don’t see what God wants us to see.  We had expectations.  We thought they were reasonable.  We may have even thought they were God’s expectations.  We don’t want to change.  We don’t like to change.  We had set our eyes on one thing and were determined it was the right thing.  Those expectations are now dashed and now our hearts ache. 

So it was with the two men.  They had built expectations based on what they had seen.  They had thought things were going to be one way.  They had thought their friend was going to change their world in a way that they understood.  They simply didn’t understand.  God’s plan was greater than what they could conceive in their hearts.  When their friend joined them on their walk and in their discussions, they didn’t even recognize him.  An aching heart does that.  We want what we had so badly that we can’t understand the change is for our own good and we don’t want to hear it.  The One who had given them hope, now while walking with them, tries to explain it to them.  They listened, but didn’t hear.  It was only later when they saw him perform an act they had seen many times that they finally recognized the man as the One and the same friend.  Later they reflected on their earlier conversation and said, “didn’t our hearts burn inside us while he talked?”  Yes, sometimes our hearts ache and we don’t think clearly.  The very hope we had wasn’t dashed or deferred, but simply replaced with another hope.  One that is even greater than the earlier one.  All we have to do is accept it.  Read the story about the two men in Luke 24:13 – 35.

Hope is forward looking and built on faith.  It is something we don’t fully understand, but something we see for the future.  “Faith, the substance of things hoped for” Luke tells us.  Hoping is not bad.  It is good if it is based on a foundation of faith.  John quotes Jesus as saying “the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.”  If our hopes are based on the things of God, then when they are taken away, we need to understand what God is doing.  The enemy of our souls will steal our hopes from us.  He desires to destroy all hope we have.  He wants our hearts to ache.  But God has given us a new heart.  Paid for by His blood.  That heart is one that has His truth written on it. That heart desires the things of God.  The enemy can try to steal it, but we must draw nearer to God and understand Him better.  Just as the men on that road to Emmaus, once they understood, their hope returned.  Only their new hope was different than they had before.  That earlier hope was based on one understanding and as they understood more, they realized the old hope was a false hope and not one that God had for them.

Can this apply to our lives?  Have we hoped for things that God didn’t want for us?  Have we put our hope in the wrong things?  Where does the foundation of our hope lie?  When our heart aches, where do we turn?

Our hope should be placed in Him.  We are told that Christ in us is our hope of glory.  God is referred to as the God of Hope.  So how do we do this?  Where does our hope fall?  We look at Christ.  The risen Savior.  That is what the two men missed.  Yes, he had died.  Yes, he had suffered.  No, he didn’t prop himself up as a king like many wished he would do.  No, he didn’t give his followers false hope.  They just didn’t understand.  Nor do we most of the time.  Yet, our hope rests in the resurrection of Christ.  Hope of a better day.  Hope of rest. Hope of drawing closer to Him.  All because He said He would do those things for us.  And there is more.  If we seek Him, many things will be added to us.  We can’t necessarily see them before they come.  We don’t always see them once they are here.  Yet, the riches of Christ far exceed those of the world.  Our heart is resting where our treasure is and it should be in the hope of glory.

Paul tells us that He is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine.  Go figure.  So, the hopes our eyes are set on may be far short of what God wants for us?  Our hopes may not allow us to see God’s full measure?  If we can imagine it, then it is less than God wants for us.  Wow.  Is that hoping in glory?  We should ponder this for quite some time wondering how to walk it out for we will not fully understand.  That is the essence of faith.  Faith.  The substance of things hoped for.  The evidence of things unseen.  Unseen.  Hoping in things we can’t imagine.  Things unseen.  Maybe that is what our shortfall is.  We only hope in the things we see.  We can see a better job.  We can see a larger home. We can’t see a joyful heart.  We can’t see a peaceful relationship.  We can’t see rest.  Paul tells us that “hope that is seen is no hope at all”.  Hope stretches the heart and makes it yearn for more.  Hope rests in God’s work.  The
Father.  We look to Him for hope. We ask Him for what we need and our hope rests in Him.

If we place our hope in Him, then we become content where we are. We are assured that God will provide for us.  We know He will give us what we need and take us to glory.  We know He will work within our hearts and give us joy.  Our hope rests fully upon our Lord and He takes the burden.  Once we make that adjustment, the hope is harder to snatch away.  It is more difficult to lose.  Now, our house is just the right size.  Our job is exactly where we want to be.  Our finances are taken care of.  We don’t worry about tomorrow, for He has taken care of today.  We can stand on that understanding because it is something we can understand.  Then, when our hopes change, we wait.  We wait patiently.  We wait for understanding.  God will come to us and assure us He is taking care of everything.  Oh, we will still grumble, I am sure.  We will still gripe and complain.  We may even grow a little weary just like those men on the road to Emmaus.  Yet, our hope isn’t in what we understand, but in the One who gives understanding.  And when our hope is in the One who gives understanding, then we find rest, peace, and joy.

Recently our little girl was playing out in the woods.  As evening approached, she didn’t return to the house.  My wife and I got worried about her and went looking for her.  Just before dark set in, we found her stuck in mud up to her waist.  She couldn’t get out and was calling for help. 
The next day after things had settled down, I asked her later if she was scared.  “Of course,” she told me.  “But I knew you would find me.”  Hope in the heart of the child. Placed fully in the hands of her father and mother.   Knowing they would provide for her.  Misplaced?  Not in her understanding.  Even in the midst of the terrible situation, her hope was still placed firmly where her faith was.  And that is all that mattered.  So should it be for us.

We Had Hoped.  ã April 2004