The thing that shocked me in my “hopeless situation” was finding out that I had hope I couldn’t see.
“For in this hope we were saved,” I read in Romans 8:24, “But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?”
That’s what it says in the NIV. In the New Living Translation, it is even more clear:
“We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it …”
Hope is already ours.
So why are there times it is hard to see?
I am convinced that one of the reasons we feel hopeless is that we do not trust that the Creator knows what He is doing. And we do not persevere to hunt for the hope that He says we already have.
I was sitting in the kitchen, looking out on a rare snowy day in my Texas backyard, when two new thoughts occurred to me:
- I am not afraid of winter. I know winter is supposed to happen.
- I am not afraid there will never be spring again. I know spring will come.
Look through any January window to see a stunning truth in naked branches. Winter is not a fluke. Winter is every bit as God-ordained, as blessed and necessary, as are the other three seasons. We’ve seen the annual repetition long enough to be sure that spring is coming, even when we cannot see the evidence. We believe that barren trees will again give birth, and our faith in this succession never falters. No matter how disheartening the day, we know new life is on the way. We trust the natural seasons so even in a long and bitter winter, we hold on and wait for the weather to change. The hope of spring sustains us.
But this sense of security changes when we start talking about the soul. What often happens when we enter a dark season– some winter of circumstances that makes life more difficult– is we shiver in the corner, afraid we will never recover from the depression, the disappointment, or the disillusionment. We are afraid we will never be happy again.
All of this started me thinking, maybe what is true of the natural seasons is also true of the seasons of the soul. Perhaps the Creator allows some difficulty in our lives for some of the same reasons that He allows winter to fall upon the earth. Winter kills off the unnecessary growth in nature and makes way for new life. Could it be that there are some periods of adversity that do the same for our souls?
Ecclesiates 3:1 tells us that “for everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” We trust the Creator who carefully tends to the earth. How much more will He carefully tend to our hearts? He will not leave us in winter.
In order to become hope hunters, the first step is to believe there will be a spring for us.
(Next week– How to Become a Hope Hunter #2: Surrender the Ending)
