Hope Deferred

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, …   Proverbs 13:12

Over the past couple of years there has been significant attention given in the media to an alarming increase of what are referred to as “deaths of despair”, which are defined as deaths by suicide or those associated with reckless alcohol or drug abuse.  Nearly 182,000 people died from those means in 2018. Then came the COVID-19 outbreak with its associated mental/emotional stresses of social isolation, fear and anxiety related to the disease, and economic uncertainty; all of which is expected to increase self-inflicted deaths that are motivated by a sense of hopelessness and despair.

This coincides with observations by sociologists and psychologists of our day that there are increasing numbers of people, particularly young people, who live as if they have no true hope; no realistic expectation or anticipation of a desirable, meaningful and happy future to motivate and direct their lives each day.  In our Darwinian infested age, many of us wake up each day with no real understanding of who we really are, why we are here, where we came from and where we are ultimately going.  As individuals and as a society we see little benefit to delaying present gratification in the hope of a better future in this world (for tomorrow we may die  and most importantly in a world to come.

This is why our city streets and bars (when they are open), our crack houses (which are always open), corporate boardrooms, entertainment venues and, yes, even our churches are filled with despairing people settling for cheap thrills, muted and dangerous pleasures, virtual realities, exploitative relationships, fleeting fame and popularity, and wealth and riches that can buy us neither love nor long life. Whether consciously or subconsciously, these are what we pursue as a means of warding off the emptiness and loneliness, the boredom, and meaninglessness of life in a disordered, unforgiving, God rejecting world.

We see many in the world who look happy, at least in the moment, which only makes those of us who aren’t feel even worse as it appears that they have achieved the joy and happiness – the success and contentment that we so desperately seek, but find ever elusive. However, outward appearances much of the time only belies the truth and hide the pain, the desperation and sense of hopelessness that lies within each of us apart from having God as our hope.

If we do have hope, which for the moment I will define simply as a desire for and confident expectation/anticipation of something good in the future, our hope is typically in ourselves; in our intelligence and ingenuity, our resilience and strength of spirit, in our job or in the lucky lottery ticket millions purchase each week.  If all of that fails to produce what we hope for, we have the promises of the men and women we elect to govern us to give us hope (see previous post).

What do we do however, when our hopes are deferred, when life happens and overwhelms us beyond measure;  when what we planned for our joy and fulfillment does not come to pass due to circumstances outside of our control, (which most are)? To whom do we turn  when that which we found joy and fulfillment in is taken from us; when our marriages fall apart, when we can’t find a job or lose the one we have; when we are diagnosed with cancer (or COVID 19); when a trusted friend betrays us; when a dream ends and life in this world goes from bad to worse?

Without a true and substantive hope that transcends life in this world, we ultimately have little ability to absorb these misfortunes and injustices, nor to cope constructively with our own personal failures and losses without sinking into overwhelming shame and self-pity, or letting ourselves be filled with bitterness  and resentment, becoming chronically angry and depressed; all states of being in which we make ourselves and others miserable, and which ultimately lead to the ruin of our soul.

Ironically, some who have all along ignored God will turn to Him in the midst of their despair, not to embrace Him as their one and true hope, but to blame Him for their troubles as if He has forgotten them, when in fact scripture says it all takes place because we have forgotten Him, the God of Hope (Romans 15:13), whom we go to great ends to exclude from our thoughts (Psalm 10:3-4).

The Psalms in the Old Testament have much to say regarding this “God of Hope.”  In Psalm 42 we have the Psalmist, possibly King David, sharing his sense of despair, feeling forgotten by God.  However, in verse 11 he speaks hope and encouragement to himself in regard to the God of Hope when he writes:

Why are you cast down, O my soul?  And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him, The ^[help of my countenance and my God.

It is this God who comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ, who in Luke 4:18 proclaims that He came into this world to bring good news to the poor, healing to the broken hearted, liberty to the prisoner, sight to the (spiritually) blind, to set free those who are oppressed; in other words, to give a true and living hope to the hopeless.

Then in Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus calls all who are burdened and overwhelmed with life in this world to come to Him to find the hope and peace and rest our soul so desperately seeks.

More on this God of Hope in my next post.

Grace and Peace ×