Hope in a Broken World

I've found myself changing a lot of my reading and media intake to things that build up. One of my favorites to read and on Twitter is Joyce Meyers. As I read her devotional book (Joyce Meyer: Promises for your everyday life - A Daily Devotional), I was stuck by the article yesterday entitled "Are You Hopeful?". Here' what it said:

When you think about the future, are you hopeful? Or do you struggle with a sense of dread?

People who have seen God's faithfulness in the past tend to be very hopeful about the future. They know a bad situation can turn into a wonderful testimony in a matter of minutes. 

On the other hand, people who have lost all hope view life from the perspective of dread. A close cousin to fear, dread steals the ability to enjoy ordinary life and makes people anxious about the future.

While reading it, I realized that most of the time I struggle with a sense of dread about the future and this makes me very anxious. But before falling into discouragement, the next paragraph gave me hope:

Hope allows us to leave our unanswered questions in God's hands; it empowers us to remain at peace, and it enables us to believe the best about the days to come.

I don't know about you, but I have so many questions, particularly questions about my future. But when I look back, when I look at my prayer list, God has really been faithful. Despite the challenges and insecurity, I can truly feel my days getting better and better. I've never been as excited for the future as I am today.

Open Books
One of the reasons why I love watching movies/plays or reading books is because I find out the ending of the stories after 2 hours for movies, and a few days (or months, in my case) for books. But I know that it's not like that in real life. I can never know the ending until I'm really at my life's end.

Like we all know from school, there are 5 parts of a story.

1.) Exposition - this is a fancy word for the beginning of the story where the author sets the "stage"

2.) Rising Action - this part is where the complication is introduced and tension builds

3.) Climax - is the most exciting part of the story

4.) Falling Action - this usually wraps up the story

5.) Resolution - or the conclusion; this is when the conflict is resolved

In these stories, we can be hopeful because most authors won't write a sad, depressing ending. Usually the complication gets resolved. The tension is released. The problem is solved. Everybody happy.

But our lives aren't closed books. Our stories haven't ended. Our author is still writing Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 37, and so on. And this is something to be hopeful for. My author, who knows me by name, who knows when I sit and when I stand, who knows my every thought (Psalm 139), is the one in charge of my story, my life, my worries, my concerns, my fears.

You have searched me, Lord, 

and you know me. 

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar. 

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways. 

Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely. 

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me. 

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain. 

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence? 

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea, 

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast. 

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me," 

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you. 

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well. 

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be. 

 (Psalm 139:1-16 NIV)

 

I read this earlier from the Relevant Magazine that reminded me that there's hope in this broken world we live in.   (Read the whole article here. )

Some of you have a good handle on things. You are confidently moving forward in your stories. Others are scared and feel like absolute misfires in the world. But for the screw-ups and wanderers, as well as the orderly and in control, God has His own story in mind. His story makes sense of our stories .

He invites all people into His community of faith, into His story. And the names He has for them are “friends,” “beloved,” and “beautiful.” That is who we are. We need only live out the story of our names.

As long as my life is not yet over, as long as my Author says that my story is not finished,  I will have hope. I will leave my unanswered questions in His hands because I believe that His answers are far better than what I'm cooking up in my head.