Keeping the Faith; Never losing Hope; Always Loving

Job 17:15

S–”Where then is my hope?  Who will see my hope?”

H–Job finds himself in the pit of despair; life is terrible; he’s ready to give up.  Its easy to read this and also hear Paul situation in Acts 24-26.  Job is experiencing a reality in life that sometimes life sucks and there is no other way to explain.  The pressure of despair is weighing Job down and he’s ready to thrown in the towel.  In the midst of his despair he asks these provoca tive questions of “where is hope” and “who can see his hope.”  Its as i f Job is going to need some help from the outside to get out of this pit.  He doesn’t doubt hope, but yet reaches out for the help of another to see his hope and point him to it.  This is a huge lesson for all of us to learn about the difference between optimism and hope along with our need to travel with others in this journey of life.

A–I am reminded of a truth this morning about the difference between hope and optimism.  More specifically the different between followers of Jesus and positive thinkers.  On the surface, both can look very similar but there is a fundamental difference that this scripture brings to light today.  Positive thinkers are optimistic people that claim to create a “happy” life based upon their own positive thinking.  Their “happiness” is connected to their own ability to create a hope is what “they” can accomplish in the future; its a mindset.  For followers of Jesus, we are hopeful people.  We are not confident in the self created mindset that should produce future happiness.  We are confident in what Jesus has already done for us through His life, death, and resurrection; it is this truth that supplies our hope…not something in that might happen in the future but the reality of what did happen in the past.  The joy that comes from this reality is the promise that we are never alone; that God is with us; that others are traveling beside us.  Hence, when (its never a matter of “if” but always “when”) we find ourselves in the “pit” we have no desire to try to “happy think” our way out of it we just simply call it what it is and yell out for a fellow traveler to point us back to hope; to help us see the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.  And in that pointing we are reminded of the promise of Jesus and joy that comes by sharing in that victory and truth that Jesus has defeated the pit.

P–Lord, I want to thank you from freeing me from living the lie of having to pretend that I’m some happy, go lucky positive thinker but that I can be real and transparent about my life….the struggles, the joy, the hardships, the mountains, the valleys.  I thank you for showing me hope and inviting me to be a person of hope.  I pray you would use me today to point others to this hope and that you would bring people around me to point me to hope when I am in the pit of despair instead of pretending the pit doesn’t exist.  Thank you for this promise and fundamental truth of hope that we as followers of Jesus claim.  Amen.

E–I am not a positive thinker; I am a person that knows the reality of hope

Peace, Pastor P

chadpullins@connect2crossroads.com; www.wedesiremore.com