The Complexity of Hope

Let's think for a moment of the Kingdom of God as a field (sure I've heard that before). Underneath the surface of this field is treasure. As we begin to dig and discover this treasure we react in different ways at different times.

Sometimes we dig for a while and are amazed at what we find. Then we stop digging because we feel we need to rest and slowly, and often subtly, our rest turns to laziness, and our laziness to apathy.

Let's put that one aside for the moment though and assume we keep digging. There are two options open: We can think to ourselves "My goodness, if this wonderful treasure is in this part of the field, what must the rest be hiding?", and go and mine different varieties of goodness elsewhere in the same field. Or, we can think "Well the surface didn't look too promising but it was hiding this glorious treasure, what could be hiding under here?", and continue to dig where we are, going deeper and deeper and discovering treasure of greater and greater worth, in the same area.

Before we get into tunnels and the analogy falls apart (or gets too complex for the point I'm making) let's leave it there and move back to literality. The first option is analagous to someone spending a while growing in, for example, the peace of God, and then feeling it was right to spend some time practising unconditional love. In the second option she gets so captivated by this peace thing that she just keeps pursuing it and pursuing it (the reality is that that'll lead her closer to God and all His other treasures will follow, but again, that's slightly beside the point).

For the most part, I'm a first option kind of guy, but every so often something comes along that really stays with me, and at the moment it's hope.

I should acknowledge that God used the church calender, namely Advent, to start this off. During the pre-Christmas season I was encourage by my regular contact with Anglican worship to meditate on hope. I did, and I still am.

Hope is a necessity. It is, we are told, one of the three things that will last, along with faith and love (this fact alone is intriguing: what need for hope when the Kingdom is fully come?). If it wasn't for hope there are times when I'm not sure I could go on. This is not because my own circumstances are especially pitiable, on the contrary I'm greatly blessed in my friends and family, my work, my house etc, and I'm gradually getting better at living in the moment, which I think makes life more enjoyable.

However, the world is a mess, and there's got to be something that can be done about it. Here are three examples from my day so far:

A man is stopped and asked to leave while weeing against the outside of a church wall. It's actually snowing so he's got to be pretty desperate to take such a step but he is given short shrift and moved on.

A man rings the bell on the door leading from the public part of the church to the offices. I open it. He's clearly out of it and not in a good way. He keeps saying "Can I speak to..." and then trailing off. My first instinct is to block his way in, which I do. After a minute or two he tells me not to worry and leaves. I am mighty glad to see him go.

I am in a situation a where I either have to lie or say some very unpleasant things about a friend. I choose the latter. He doesn't know yet and I feel I'm stabbing him in the back.

This stuff tears me up. As I think about it I want to scream at the heavens. There's got to be a more constructive outlet though. There's got to be solutions to these issues. This is why hope is a necessity, and I'm very glad to hear that God is able to do more than we could ask or imagine. My hope is in Him. To be honest it's there at the moment simply because it's got nowhere else to go, but I suspect that over time it'll find it's a pretty good place to be.

I'll probably be writing more about hope soon, so far the digging's been tough, and that's usually a good sign.