Hope and Optimisum

Hope and Optimisum
by Brodie Swisher

This past weekend brought the arrival of bowhunting season for a number of states across the country. As always, it was a time of great anticipation of what’s to come in a new season of encounters with wild critters. As you may have seen, there were countless Facebook friends that chimed in from the woods on opening morning via their smartphones. I always get a kick out of the number of camo-clad friends that sit perched in their treestand or groundblind and make comments on Facebook like, “Back in the treestand…fingers crossed!” The optimism in these guys is admirable. But what I really like to see are the posts that I saw from a few other friends. Their posts were strikingly different from the wishful thinking of some. Their status was, “Hunting season is here once again…something’s gonna die this morning!”

You see, there’s a big difference in optimism and the confident hope and assurance of what is to come. While some simply hang a treestand, cross their fingers, and wish for the best, others have done their homework. They’ve played the game enough to know what to expect. They are confident in what the ultimate outcome will be.

A passage from the Bible in Lamentations chapter 3 finds Jeremiah looking ahead with great confidence and hope for what lies ahead. Even after walking through a dark time in life and being in a place of despair, he says, “Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (Lam. 3:21-23)

Do you find yourself in the midst of life’s mess right now? Do you try to look to the future with optimism yet feel bound by the struggles that keep you from moving on? Do you feel like you’re on the verge of being consumed by the crisis that surrounds you? I want to encourage you with the fact that we have more than wishful thinking and optimism to cling to. We have a confident hope in a God that is so great and merciful that regardless of the circumstance, we are not consumed. He will not leave us or abandon us. Great is His faithfulness! Do you find your hope in Him?

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