Sometimes hope hurts. Hope can be lonely, discouraging and disappointing when it remains unfulfilled. You wonder if it’s time to give up. To move on. To accept that what you want may never happen.

Hope: the vague sense that something could change. A little more than a wish. A little less than a prayer. We ask ourselves “Is this it?” We hold our breath and then wait, as if the thing that we so desperately want will jump out from behind a bush, knock on the door, or sit down beside us at a table. Like pennies thrown into a fountain, we don't really expect results. We chalk up our lost dreams  to destiny, fate or chance.

It’s interesting to me that hope surprises us when we actually get what we want. Why are we so caught off guard when the things that we desire actually come to fruition? I think it must be because hope in this world is unsteady at best. Barely visible, it's only a fleeting glimpse of the forseeable future. A thing with feathers that too quickly flies away. A filled balloon waiting to be burst. A grasp at the wind. Naivety trying to hold onto that which cannot be held.

Is it really reasonable to keep waiting for something you can’t quite put your finger on? To keep waiting for an unknown amount of time? Too keep expecting that something not quite tangible will happen? That sounds completely irrational.

When does the time come to give up?

According the Bible, we are never to stop hoping. We are always to live with the confident expectation that God will answer us. His hope is different! Paul tells us that God's hope is like an anchor; firm and secure. Precious? Yes. Fragile? Never. No shattered dreams to be found where we have an anchor. Just a rock solid iron weight, massive and impossibly heavy, sunk deep into an unknown sea. It shouldn't surprise us when the anchor does what it was made to do. It holds the ship and keeps it from drifting. So also, there is never a reason to be surprised by God’s hope.

The hope of the Bible has nothing to do with the "hopeful" fate of this world. You don’t leave the harbour without an anchor and “hope” that fate holds back the storms. Hope is not the wind in your sails. It’s not what keeps you going. Hope is for when the wind has become too strong, the seas too high and the sky too dark. Paul says that hope is something that we can unswervingly cling to. Something that we can always rely upon; something to hang onto for dear life when our little boat is rocking.

I have this hope. This anchor for my soul. This joyful anticipation that I will cling to unashamedly, no matter what the skies look like. My confidence is in the weight of who God is, so I will set out to sea.  I will keep sailing into the unknown. My fate is not sealed. My destiny is not set, and Christ as my anchor will hold.

“God is this it?”
“Oh yes, baby girl, THIS IS IT!”