Hope is a Who

As mentioned before, I’m in the process of learning how to let go—learning what it looks like practically and emotionally. During this process, I keep running into a word I’ve breezed past so many times before. A word so ethereal it makes my brain hurt to try and put physical words around it. But with Christmas just around the corner, and the weeks of Advent flying past, there’s no avoiding the word.

Hope.

It’s another seemingly nebulous word sprinkled throughout the Bible. A word we use on a regular basis in all the wrong ways. A word our world has no idea what it really means. Much like the word love is misused for all kinds of things like pizza, travel, and ideas, hope is seen as something to grasp for, always in front of us, just out of reach, just on the other side of the rainclouds lies the hope of a rainbow. We hope for an outcome, a positive turn to current circumstances.

The world’s hope is never realized. I’m learning mine is ever present.

I am learning hope is not a thing, it is an action in response to a Who. It is not a thing to attain, but an action to take in obedience. Hope is present anywhere Jesus is present. Hope is the proof of His presence. To have Christ means to also have hope. If Christ is in me, hope is also present.(Romans 15:13, Colossians 1:27, 1 Peter 1:3)

Before Christ, the psalmists wrote of hope in the Lord. Their hope was God’s words. God’s promises to them through the law and the prophets. Hope was something they chose to do in faith, believing God to be true to His word. When you read of hope in the Old Testament, it acts as a buoy for the believers’ souls. Putting their hope in God was a choice, an act done out of love and obedience in response to a God who kept His promises. (Psalm 39:7, 42:5, 130:5, Lamentations 3:24)

Then Christ came! The long-promised Messiah born of a virgin, who fulfilled hundreds of God’s promises to His people in His lifetime. Then He died and resurrected. Conquering death, the day Jesus rose from the grave was also the day hope was born anew. Before that point in eternity, hope had been conceived and grown in the womb of history until all of time was ripe for the birth of hope upon the resurrection of Christ, upon the defeat of death, upon the end to the destruction of sin. (Matthew 12:21, Romans 5:5, Romans 15:13)

The power of Christ is our hope. Hope is the action we take in response to the One who birthed its reality. And it doesn’t matter how many words I try to use to explain myself, I still fall short. (Exasperated sigh.)

I don’t hope for a better tomorrow. I live today with the hope of glory residing within me. (Colossians 1:27)

The idea hope is always coming--just out of reach, if you hold on just a little longer--is all wrong. Instead, hope is here, now, with you. Hope has arrived and is present. Hope is powerful if you choose to believe it now, not later, not tomorrow, not in the future. Believe Jesus is who He says He is today for this present joy, this present struggle, this present moment, and you will possess hope. You won’t have to hold onto it because it will be carried inside you like a light from within.

When I say, I have hope, I’m saying I have Jesus. The two are synonymous. I have hope for a brighter future for my children because Christ already resides in that future. He’s already there; therefore, I have hope, I can hope, I will hope.

To lose hope in any format, is to lose sight of Christ, to lose touch with the power of the Holy Spirit filling you with every breath. This is easy to do in a world where blinding lies and distractions vie for the attention of your heart, mind, and soul. Returning to Christ at any point for any reason is to reclaim the hope of your calling, to live fully once more. (Ephesians 1:18)

If truth is an anchor for the soul, hope is a buoy for the soul. It is a daily, present marker and reminder our God saves, He is faithful, and He keeps His promises. Hope is not in the future. It is something we possess now, something to keep us afloat for today because God came like He promised and made a way, a loophole around the sentence of death we chose for ourselves. The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ made a way where there was no way before. So, if we carry the Holy Spirit with us, we carry hope with us.

When the world “hopes” it is a wish for better days, better things, better outcomes. A wish is whisked away on the wind with one breath—here today, gone tomorrow, often forgotten. True hope is the buoy on the horizon anchored to truth at its base. It is concrete and sure and immovable. Here today, tomorrow, and forever. It cannot be forgotten or lost because it never disappears. In our humanity, we often lose sight of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.

To grasp the reality of having hope today, in this very moment, makes me smile from the inside out.

In all the ways I’m learning to let go, it is a relief to know hope is not something I have to hold onto for dear life. Hope resides within my very being, carried within me, alive and thriving and beating. The Holy Spirit is my hope. He simply needs to be acknowledged and credit given where credit is due.

When is the last time you considered where your hope comes from? When’s the last time you acknowledged and tapped into that hope? Who in your life needs you to share your ever-present hope with them today? Tis the season.