Hope That Does Not Disappoint

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Romans 8:18-21

Tim Keller made the good observation that we use the word "hope" when we are not certain of an outcome.  "I hope it will snow" or "I hope the Braves will be a winning team again."  This, it seems, is how my heart is inclined to think of the hope I have in God's Kingdom through the Gospel.  Yet, this is exactly opposite of the certainty of hope in the person and work of Jesus.

I've been in a real funk the past several days, and as I told my cousin, not the awesome dancing kind of funk.  That heaviness with which people describe depression, where all tasks seem too burdensome and the joy of life just seems out of reach.  Talk about a life suck!  I'm so glad my family loves me anyway.

The trigger of my heavy laden heart's condition?  Basically, its as juvenille as you might guess:  one too many circumstances not going my way.  What has made the wound especially raw is that each of these desires (to sell our current home and move into a racially diverse neighborhood, to be given steps to follow to get my book published, to adopt an orphan from Uganda) has felt like God's hand, God's lead and consistent with God's redemptive work in my heart and the world.  So, the cumulitive effect of their delay has robbed my joy and threatened my hope.  He doesn't seem to be doing what I think He should be as quickly as I think He should be doing it.  What if none of it happens at all?

You know why these immediate circumstances have had this power over me?  I wondered if it was extreme discontent, and repented of this even as I wait for Him to make me content.  I acknowledge the reality that my need for control is being smacked upside the head and ask Him to help me trust His control more.  But the connection to my faith is too real to ignore.  The person and work of Jesus has reminded me that certainty has never been promised in regard to my immediate circumstances but is in the very hope of His promise that my circumstances are working toward a greater end, the redemption of His creation including my heart.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.  Hebrews 11:1-2

The ancients were commended for a faith that was sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  My faith, in contrast, had ever so subtly shifted from certainty in what I do not see to dependence upon the visible evidence of His control, goodness, love and power in my immediate circumstances.  The uncertainty of my circumstances has rocked my world because my hope began to direct itself toward the visible, tangible experiences of His Kingdom rather than the "unalterably sure" promises of God's redemptive plan, as Geerhardus Vos puts it. 

 The "ancients" believed in this Redeemer and God's plan to make all things new, even as they sat enslaved, imprisoned, discouraged, defeated and running after their own efforts of fulfilling God's promises for Him.  Think about how disoriented Jesus' own disciples were at the time of His death because their hope had been in the immediate rather than in the ultimate redemption of all things.  Looking back in Biblical history, the story isn't of each person's circumstances demonstrating success, victory and power, but of God's Kingdom moving from death to resurrection, consistently and progressively, even if not yet fully realized in any one of these believer's lifetime. 

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:1-5

Hope is not in my will being done but that His will be done.  Hope, Biblically, is the certainty that God will complete the good work He has begun in me (and the entirety of creation) no matter how I fight it or fail to evidence it at times.    Hope, as Tim Keller put it, is a "life shaping certainty about the future."  It places my certainty not in "getting mine" but in being His.  The difference in those two sources of hope is vast and absolutely life shaping.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.  Psalm 42:5 (and first three words of 6)

The meaning of life in my last few days was morbidly defined, infiltrated and saturated by my failing hope in "getting mine" - of course I grew weary, depressed and lifeless.  Oh but the Gospel offers such a better hope, a more certain hope, that through the person and work of Jesus (not the attainment of a new house, new book deal or new child) I am His and my life is in every detail part of His redemptive story. That gives a dignity to the seemingly mundane as is not possible any other way. For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 2 Corinthians 3:10-12

I pray also 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 the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Ephesians 1:18-23

I am sad that my house won't seem to sell, that we can't move, that Ugandan adoptions are on hold and that the most remarkable accomplishment in my day might be removing a mildew stain from the tub.  These circumstances are disappointing and even discouraging to me, but they will not be where I rest my hope.  They are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed, even as they direct me to the hope that will never disappoint.