Speaking Hope Over Us

I'd like to think I'm generally hopeful, but cheering for my sports teams lately has somewhat disabused me of that notion.  

It's the beginning of a new football season, and already, both my favorite college and professional football teams have underwhelmed and underperformed, leaving me wondering why I allowed myself to feel any hope to begin with. 

It's a test of my resolve, and despite my overall belief that God doesn't really do things like intentionally mess with us, I'm wondering if the Almighty is making an exception with me. 

Maybe it's a wager with the angels, and God's taking bets from them on how I'll react.  This isn't fair because God knows how I'll respond, so there's no way for the angels to confidently bet that I'll cover the spread between despair and abject despondency.  

Anyway, it's been tough to hold on to hope; that is all I'm saying. 

All (mostly) kidding aside, there are many reasons that many of us might be struggling to hold on to hope that have absolutely nothing to do with sports and everything to do with the state of the world around us or the state of our own fragile, breaking hearts.  

Some of us might feel at the moment like God might be messing with us, or, at the very least, God is entirely unconcerned about our current plight.   We might be dealing with loss, grief, health issues, financial woes, broken relationships, or any number of soul-crushing pressures. 

Not to mention, the culture we live in sometimes seems to be intent on self-implosion. 

Hope is a precious commodity nowadays, and far too often, we feel as though if it hasn't slipped away from us, it will very soon.  

I came across this beautiful snippet from a poem by Shel Silverstein that spoke to me deeply today, so I thought I would share it: 

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”

Leave it to Shel Silverstein to speak to the inner child in us all. 

I love the way this line unfolds.  I actually read it out loud just so I could feel the weight of those first words about listening to the "mustn't," "don'ts," and "never haves."  

So many voices around us, including our own, speak of those hope-stealing things, and it's hard to ignore them. That's why this is such a powerful statement. We can't help but listen to why hope feels absent. 

But another voice comes to us as a whisper (which is how I read this line) and speaks even more powerful words.  And these words--"Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"--are the most important for us to hear.  

I'd like to imagine that those words are spoken to us by God because I tend to believe that God is always speaking them over us.  

We don't have to live hopelessly because hope is forever within us and all around us because of these words spoken by God over us.  

This is the same God who created Creation and called it good. This is the same God who speaks courage into frightened people who fled centuries of slavery into the unknown. This is the same God who spoke "beloved" over Jesus and made "He is risen" the last words ever needed to bring hope to all.  

May we hear these words spoken over us today and live in hope.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever. Amen.