Elpis

Clever, eh? To avoid redundancy, and to make myself seem far more educated than I really am, I choose a word from a rather dead language (sure, it has a modern form - so does english, though.) and VOILA! A new title for the same subject.


I hope (haha) I'm not boring anyone with all this talk about . . . hope. It's just on my mind a lot. Kinda has been most of my life. And I really think that with it is central to what we do as Christians - we hope we are making a difference by our actions to the world around us. Not in a blind, "hey, let's see if this works" kind of way . . . but in a "I'm trusting that whatever happens, in the end, will make sense of what now appears to be chaos."

Really, though, as much as I appear to be hopeful, my knee jerk reaction to certain specific things is pretty negative. We'll get into details later - maybe - but these areas are all intensely personal and rooted in how I think of myself. So though I offer hope to all around me, it seems I don't do such a good job saving some for myself.

I'm not one to complain - honest. I have been richly blessed in this short life of mine. But enough has happened, and I've been exposed to enough personally to know that there seems to be a lack of happy endings in this world. I hope and believe that ultimately, the final ending of this world is good, as there is a completion of the restoration begun as soon as it was needed. Yet for the time being, heartaches and heartbreaks are par for the course, something that is a uniquely human experience - perhaps a way that we are made in God's image?

Emotions are such a powerful thing. Whatever is the next step deeper than feelings ( a state of being?) is even that much more powerful. Hope and despair are two of the most instantly noticed "feelings" (for lack of a better word) that I know of. Ever been around someone who is constantly despondent? How about someone who seems to defecate sunbeams? Notice a difference?

And yes, I could have been less crude there. But on the flip side, I could also have been MORE crude.

Point is, I think it's important to differentiate between an instantaneous emotional reaction to something and your actual belief about the way life is. Mine don't always seem to connect, and it bugs me. It's like I have to take a step back, away from myself, and remind me that whatever is happenning, it is NOT FINAL.

After all, if death isn't final, what could life possibly hold that is?