Hope

Anyone who has cooked Italian food will know that it's always better the second time around.  That's because the spices have a chance to permeate the whole dish.  I learned a trick from an Italian cook once when he was doing lasagna...take it out of the oven for about 30 minutes and it fakes out the spices and allows them to saturate the dish.

Hope is like that.  It takes some time to simmer.  Hope is not the kind of thing that you get in a flash of Holy Spirit power but is rather built over time.  It grows when you see the Father show up to bring you his resources.  He doesn't always come right away, in fact, I have a friend who says that God is always late...at least based on his timetable!

Unfortunately, we put our hope in the wrong things...a job, a big bank account, dependable cars, friends.  All of those things can go away in just the flash of an instant.  But if that's all we've ever trusted in then that's what our hope is built on.  And it will fail.

Hope is knowing that the Father will show up.  In order to learn that you have to put your hope in Him and not in other things.  That's scary.  That's because we have interpreted the Father's hope based on hope in things or people.  They've been kind of our security in case God doesn't show up.  That's why so often when people and things let us down we interpret the Father's heart as being just as fickle.  We blame Him for the failure of those we have put our hope in.

It's a hard habit to break and one that takes lots of God's grace to master.  By His grace He pulls the rug out from under us, takes away the things we rely on and leaves us with only one hope...Him.

Growing in a mature hope is like Italian food.  The circumstances have to simmer some.  They have to permeate the dish.  They need time to make the best meal.

As I age I see that God is a lot slower about some things than I would like Him to be.  He doesn't like to microwave my hope but rather to let it saturate slowly over time.  When I left my job last September the colleagues who let me go said that I would have a job quickly.  They were sure.  That wasn't based on a revelation from God but just nice words to leave me with.

It hasn't happened that way.  I am trusting in the hope that the Father knows my gifts.  He knows my needs.  He knows where he wants to put me.  And He is letting me enjoy the time off.  I have read 40 books since the beginning of the year.  I finished some remodeling projects (and started others) that I have dreamed of doing for 3 years.  I used to lament that I wished I had a week to work in my yard, a week to work in my shop and a week to work on something else.  I've had them.  Gifts from my Father who has instilled in me hope over the last 6 months.

My hope isn't built on the economic stimulus package put together by the President and Congress.  It isn't set on a broad circle of friends that I sit with every week.  It can't be measured in how much money I have in the bank.  It can only be valued by the relationship that I have with my Father.  My hope is built on nothing less.