When Hope Disappoints

Since January 2015 is coming to an end, I decided it was time to finally write what has been going on in my heart. Maybe someone can relate! Some years-end I've wished away due to heartache that inevitably occurred, others I've eagerly welcomed anticipating the coming year. However, 2014, as seemingly uneventful as it was, forgot to ask me if I was ready for it to end. It has taken all 31 days to welcome 2015. Mentally I was not ready to move forward on January 1, 2015. While many posted their exciting 2015 goals and resolutions, I was still trying to decide if I wanted to embrace another year of disappointed hope (before you stop reading thinking this will be depressing, it is actually uplifting.) 

Since the Bible is my personal voice of truth and guiding light, here is the scripture I’ve been rehearsing most of the month:

“And Hope DOES NOT disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:5. 

When I read this verse I had to read it a couple of times. In fact, dare I say it, I was a little frustrated with God. I kept saying, “But God I AM disappointed. All my hopes and dreams have a long way to go before I’m satisfied.” Then I got that gentle nudge to read it again, and again, and again.

After a week of going over this verse and others, I realized “Hope does not disappoint us,” when our Hope is in Jesus. Our hope is disappointed when it becomes misplaced. Sometimes we can become obsessed with the calling, with the big dreams, or the vision that God Himself placed in our hearts. The hope locks eyes on the expectation rather than Miracle Maker. It is very disappointing when things do not fall into place according to our timeline. The hope that should be on God is replaced by the hope in those things. (This may seem so simple for most life-long Christians, still easy to miss.) 

We hope in Jesus because He is our only real source of Hope. Hope can be disappointed even in a solid relationship with Jesus. We can hope in Jesus for the majority of life and through various circumstances. When there is a hint of hope in something else, the disappointment of that one thing spoils all the hope in the One that really matters. The lack of answered prayers or fulfilled dreams do not mean that God has forgotten your prayers or personal hopes. His ways are better. His timing is perfect.

Maybe your hope was in your job and it has failed to supply monetarily or mentally. 
Maybe your hope has been in a man and he just isn't meeting your needs or expectations. Maybe your hope was in a positive health report, and the fight for life must continue. 
Maybe your hope was to see your family situation turn around, and it hasn't.
Maybe your hope was in a childhood dream that never seemed to work out. 
Maybe your hope was in that sweet baby you carried two trimesters, but lost. 
Maybe your hope was in that man you called a pastor, and he failed you. 

There are an entire host of things we can put our hope in. The words above are not a suggestion to forget our callings, dreams, prayers, or even good intentions. We hope for the best of life, but life disappoints. No one can deny that reality at some point in time, no matter the depth. The truth remains: Jesus does not disappoint. He willingly gives, to those who asks, the Holy Spirit to see us through each hopeful and hopeless circumstance. 

When my hope in the present is disappointed I have to adjust my vision. I have to “Fix (my) eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of (My) faith,” Hebrews 12:2. Then I can wake up each day and dare to HOPE again.  

“So We FIX our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4:18.